The British government has announced a probe into the use of dynamic pricing after ticket seller Ticketmaster significantly increased costs for the Oasis reunion while customers sat in a virtual queue
Tom Anstey | Planet Attractions | 03 Sep 2024
Fans caught in a virtual queue for Oasis tickets found themselves with unexpectedly inflated fees thanks to dynamic pricing techniques Credit: Simon Emmett
Dynamic pricing - a tool used in visitor attractions to adjust ticket prices based on seasonal attendance - has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons after fans of the band Oasis made complaints about how tickets for the tour were advertised.
Utilising dynamic pricing - inflating or deflating prices based on demand - the system saw tickets for the highly-anticipated Oasis reunion soar by more than £200 while buyers were in the queue for tickets.
On the Ticketmaster website, the cost of some Oasis tickets rose to more than £350 - up from £135 when the sale began on Saturday.
Such has been the furore over the price increase that the British government has pledged to look into the use of the tool.
“There are a number of things that we can and should do,” said British Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer. “Because otherwise, you get to the situation where families simply can't go or are absolutely spending a fortune on tickets.”
While Ticketmaster’s version of dynamic pricing has seen ticket costs inflated from a base cost, in attractions, the tool is used to offer cheaper entry on days when attendance will be lower and more expensive when busy. Using this technique, attendance is spread more evenly across the year, offering an improved service throughout the season.
Additionally, the tool is used to reward advanced booking, with cheaper tickets on offer for those booking dates far in the future, incentivising customers to plan ahead while providing operators with enhanced cash flow predictability.
The British government’s probe into dynamic pricing will include a consultation into the ticketing market in the UK, which will be aimed at cracking down on both unfair pricing and ticket touts.
“After the incredible news of Oasis’ return, it’s depressing to see vastly inflated prices excluding ordinary fans from having a chance of enjoying their favourite band live,” said Britain’s culture secretary, Lisa Nandy.
“We will include issues around the transparency and use of dynamic pricing, including the technology around queuing systems which incentivise it, in our forthcoming consultation on consumer protections for ticket resales.”
Ticketmaster says on its website that “prices are adjusted according to supply and demand”, with the goal to give fans “fair and safe access to the best tickets while enabling artists and other people involved in staging live events to price tickets closer to their true market value.”
Operations and ticketing
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