Hundreds file complaints regarding Oasis ticket costs

The scheme caused the value of many tickets to skyrocket by more than £200 the day after they went on sale on Saturday, leaving some fans out of pocket and forcing others to quit up.

Ministers have now confirmed that dynamic pricing would be included in a consultation on ticket resale websites, which was previously announced by the government and will begin in the autumn.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy stated that she wants to put an end to "rip-off resales" and ensure that tickets are offered "at fair prices".

On Ticketmaster, some tickets cost more than £350, up from £135 when the sale started on Saturday. Ticketmaster stated that the rates were determined by the "event organizer," who "priced these tickets based on their market value."

Dynamic pricing is not a new phenomena, and it is permitted under consumer protection regulations. Some tickets were also rapidly advertised on resale websites for thousands of pounds. Ms. Nandy stated that it was "depressing to see vastly inflated prices excluding ordinary fans" from gigs.

Outlining the scope of the government inquiry, she stated that ministers would look at "issues surrounding the transparency and use of dynamic pricing, including the technology behind queuing systems that incentivize it."

Fellow minister Lucy Powell, the House of Commons leader, was among those affected by dynamic pricing over the weekend. She eventually paid more than double the original suggested price for an Oasis show ticket.

She told BBC Radio 5 Live that she did not "particularly like" surge pricing, but that "it is the market and how it operates". On Monday, the Advertising Standards Authority announced that it had received 450 complaints alleging that the advertisements for ticket prices and availability were misleading.

"We are carefully reviewing these complaints and, as a result, cannot comment further at this time," an ASA spokeswoman said. "To emphasise, we are not currently investigating these ads."

Supply and demand

One fan, Jamie Moore, told the BBC that he had never been "so let down by a website" in his life. Oasis and its promoter have not replied to the accusations.

Schellion Horn, a competition economist at Grant Thornton, told the BBC's Today programme that dynamic pricing was about adjusting prices based on supply and demand.

This means that when demand for tickets rises, so will the price. Ms Horn said that there was a "realisation that actually the tickets were underpriced" when the sale first began on Saturday, considering the large number of people in online queues.

People were "clearly willing to pay prices of £300-£400", she claimed, otherwise they would not have parted with their money.

However, she stated that the issue was that individuals were unaware that dynamic pricing was in place, resulting in a lack of transparency.

"We see it all the time, whether it's Uber or airline tickets or holidays or train tickets, so we're very very used to dynamic pricing...but I think this was the first time we've really seen it for concert tickets in the UK and people just weren't expecting it and I think that's where the issue came in," she told.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Brown, CEO of the Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers, complimented ticketing services for dealing with the "enormous demand" for Oasis tickets, insisting that the band would have set the prices.

Ms Nandy stated that if the government collaborated with "artists, industry, and fans, we can create a fairer system that ends the scourge of touts, rip-off resales, and ensures tickets at fair prices".

Before becoming Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer supported a proposal to regulate resold ticket prices and limit the number of tickets a person can resell.

During a March address, he stated that access to culture could not be "at the mercy of ruthless ticket touts who drive up the prices".