Arts Minister Says ‘Watch This Space’ On Dynamic Ticket Pricing After Oasis Uproar
The way Oasis tickets were sold using so-called 'dynamic pricing' caused widespread anger earlier this month (Alamy)
3 min read
The new arts minister has said the secondary ticket market “drives me mad” and that people should “watch this space” over the Government’s review into so-called dynamic pricing.
It comes amid anger over the way tickets were sold for the Oasis reunion concerts next year, after fans believed they were queuing to buy them at one price, only to find they were massively marked up when they came to purchase them.
It led to the Lisa Nandy, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, announcing a review into the issue, including the "technology around queuing systems which incentivise it", which was welcomed by the Competition and Markets Authority.
Chris Bryant, speaking on the PoliticsHome podcast The Rundown at Labour’s party conference in Liverpool, criticised the practise, saying: “Consumers have the right to know what they're entering into at the beginning of the process.”
The Rhondda MP, who is also the minister for telecoms, was asked specifically about the recent sale of Oasis tickets, which triggered a debate about how the dynamic pricing system, created by ticketing firm Ticketmaster in 2022, operates.
“I have to be a little bit careful about the precise Oasis thing, because there is an investigation ongoing and they have legal powers and so on and I don't want to interfere with that,” he replied.
“But yes. We're looking at the secondary ticket market, because it drives me mad when you see a ticket that is £85 on the face value, and then it's sold for £8,500.
“I wouldn't mind if some of that money were going to the artist or the the production company, or the or the venue, or the cleaners in the venue or whatever, but not a penny of it is, it doesn't go to the local economy at all.”
Arts minister Chris Bryant and Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy are looking into the secondary ticket market (Alamy)
Bryant said it “all disappears off” and it never sees the creative industries, adding that “we are going to take action on that”, although he could not detail the precise nature of the change, or “what legislative model we might need”.
But the minister added: “Watch this space, and yes, we do need to look at the issues in relation to dynamic pricing, because it's about knowing what you're getting into at the beginning.
“It seems to me, it's all about transparency and openness. If somebody wants to sell a ticket to something for £5,000, and somebody wants to buy it, I don't think we're in the business of telling people what they can buy and sell things for.
“But consumers have the right to know what they're entering into at the beginning of the process, when they first log in.”
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