Surge pricing could have a ‘huge impact’ on leisure industry, claims resale boss

Ticket surge pricing could have a “huge impact” on the leisure industry if people are priced out of attending events, a boss of a major resale site has claimed.

Some Oasis fans were left shocked by standard tickets more than doubling from £148 to £355 on Ticketmaster for their reunion tour this weekend, prompting the Government to pledge to look into the use of dynamic pricing in its forthcoming review of the secondary gig sales market.

The system that was utilised by ticket seller Ticketmaster for the rock band’s tour allows it to alter the price of tickets based on demand.

Impact

Oscar Kriek, director of partnerships at TicketSwap, told the PA news agency: “The impact is bigger than just this one event, because if these very popular events are implementing these kind of pricing strategies, it means that there’s less room for other events, because the consumers can only spend a specific amount of money once.

“Which means that if they spend these huge amounts on these single events, then (the) leisure budget overall throughout the year will be significantly impacted, which means that there is less room to visit other leisure experiences, so other concerts or festivals.

“So this has a huge impact. Therefore, I don’t think this is something that we should want as an industry.”

Following the ticket furore, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received 450 complaints about Ticketmaster adverts for the Oasis gigs.

‘Misleading claims’

A spokesperson for the UK’s regulator of advertising said the complainants argue that the adverts made “misleading claims about availability and pricing”.

Ticketmaster has said it does not set prices and its website says this is down to the “event organiser” who “has priced these tickets according to their market value”.

The long-awaited Oasis reunion tour drew huge attention from fans as it will see the Manchester-formed Britpop band on stage together for the first time since their major split in 2009.

On August 31, they revealed the general sale tickets for their upcoming 17 UK and Ireland gigs had sold out in less than a day, but many fans missed out as they battled website issues and being mislabelled as bots.

Other international dates are still to be announced, but no more UK shows will be added to their tour, the PA news agency understands.

Mr Kriek explained that ticket sites like Ticketmaster will charge a service fee or they will take a percentage for facilitating the sale, but that the main split is between the promoters and the artist.

“Usually, how it works with a concept tour is that the promoter sells the ticket and there’s a split between the promoter and the band, so the band will get a percentage of the selling price of the ticket, so that’s the face value, but in this case, it would be the dynamic pricing”, he said.

“The eventual ticket price will be split with the percentage that’s in the agreement between the promoter and the band.

“So the band will definitely see something from that additional revenue.”

Promoters

It is believed the ticket prices for the Oasis gigs were set by promoters which included Manchester-based SJM Concerts, Irish MCD and Scottish DF Concerts & Events.

Mr Kriek, whose resale site caps sales at 20% of the original price, said how the ticket pricing was handled with the Oasis sale was a “shame” as it has caused some fans to already have a negative experience, which he feels could have been prevented.

“I hope that we learn from them as an industry, because we want to prevent these things… because it has such an impact on the entire industry”, he added.

“We are very much for a more fair and a safer ticketing ecosystem, and we need everyone within the industry.”

On Monday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the Government will get a “grip” on the issue of surge pricing and that it is seeking consultation on the issue.

He told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I do think there are a number of things that we can do and we should do, because otherwise you get to the situation where families simply can’t go, or are absolutely spending a fortune on tickets, whatever it may be.

“So we’ll grip this and make sure that actually tickets are available at a price that people can actually afford.”

It came after Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy released a statement on Sunday calling the inflated selling of Oasis tickets “incredibly depressing”.

She added: ““This Government is committed to putting fans back at the heart of music. So 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.”

Review

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has said it is “urgently reviewing” the ticketing market and that it is looking forward to working with the Government on the issue.

A spokesperson for CMA said: “The CMA is urgently reviewing recent developments in the ticketing market, including the way dynamic pricing is being used in the primary market.

“Consumer protection law requires businesses to be fair and transparent in their dealings with consumers, and businesses must give clear and accurate information about the price people have to pay. Failure to do so may breach the law.

“The CMA wants fans to get a fair deal when they buy tickets. We have already acted against major resale websites on the secondary market to ensure consumer law is being followed.

“But we think more protections are needed for consumers here and made recommendations to the previous government in 2021 about the changes that are needed.

“It is positive that the Government now wants to address this. We look forward to working with them to get the best outcomes for fans and fair-playing businesses.”