Oasis and Ticketmaster should refund fans who were charged over-inflated prices for tickets, the consumer group Which? has said.
Liam and Noel Gallagher announced the band would reunite for a tour in 2025, but fans suffered various problems when trying to get tickets, including some ending up paying as much as £355 for tickets originally advertised for £148 on Ticketmaster.
The controversy prompted the government and the UK’s competition watchdog to announce they would look into the use of dynamic pricing.
Which? asked Oasis fans to send in screenshots of the ticket-buying and checkout process to see if they were warned prices could surge due to high demand.
It said it received dozens of screenshots from fans who had tried to buy tickets, both before and after prices increased, but none showed a warning message Ticketmaster would increase prices during the sale.
Instead, Which? said it saw evidence fans were shown one price for tickets only to have that swapped at the last second for a far higher and unexpected ticket price.
It cited one screenshot showing the cost of standing tickets at a Heaton Park show, originally advertised for £148.50, surged to £337.50 each due to “in demand” pricing.
The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations (CPRs) state traders must not mislead customers with how prices are presented or leave out key pricing information they might need to make an informed decision.
Which? said many fans were not informed about the higher prices until they had already tried to add cheaper tickets to their baskets.
The use of ‘dynamic pricing’ was mentioned in the terms and conditions on the website, but fans were not warned the practice would be used for Oasis tickets, Which? said.
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Last week the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched an investigation into Ticketmaster, looking at how ‘dynamic pricing’ may have been used, and whether the sale by Ticketmaster may have breached consumer protection law.
Ticketmaster has said it does not set concert prices and its website states this is down to the “event organiser” who “has priced these tickets according to their market value”.
Oasis previously stated they had no involvement in the dynamic pricing decision.
Which? said it would share its findings with the CMA.
Which? consumer law expert Lisa Webb said: “It seems extremely unfair that Oasis fans got up early and battled through the queues only to find that ticket prices had more than doubled from the originally advertised price.
“Which? believes that Ticketmaster’s ‘in demand’ pricing practices for Oasis tickets could have breached consumer law as it appears fans weren’t properly warned about the use of ‘in demand’ pricing until far too late in the purchase journey – leading to a nasty shock at the checkout.
“Oasis and Ticketmaster should do the right thing and refund fans who may have been misled into paying over the odds for tickets that would have been half the price just hours earlier.”
Oasis sent out invites over the weekend for a private invite-only ballot for their “final” Wembley Stadium dates after they extended their Live ’25 tour to include two more London shows on 27 and 28 September.
Last week Liam Gallagher had joked about the price of Oasis tickets, but later addressed the chaos, tweeting: “I’m seriously gutted for people that can’t get tickets, I can’t even go there it hurts my heart and I know people will think I’m taking the piss, but I’m not.”
Sky News has contacted Ticketmaster for comment.
A spokesperson for Oasis declined to comment.
Source : Sky News
