Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy announced plans to implement stricter regulations on ticket touts who bulk-buy and resell tickets for significant profits. This move comes as the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) investigates whether Ticketmaster breached consumer-protection laws during the sale of Oasis reunion-tour tickets last summer. Fans expressed outrage over Ticketmaster's "dynamic pricing," which resulted in many paying up to £350 per ticket—£200 more than the advertised price. The Business and Trade Select Committee held a hearing to address these concerns, where Ticketmaster UK's boss, Andrew Parsons, defended the company's pricing strategies.
Ticketmaster UK has proposed a cap of up to 30% on ticket resale prices as part of the government's public consultation on ticket resale. However, critics argue that this cap may still allow touts to profit significantly.
"30% still gives the opportunity for touts to be able to be running a business in that manner," Andrew Parsons stated during the hearing.
The CMA's investigation focuses specifically on the Oasis ticket sale, with Charlie Maynard MP urging the authority to also consider Live Nation's "dominant market share." Live Nation, Ticketmaster's parent company, is renowned as the world's largest live events promoter.
"It needs to be made clear that Oasis leave decisions on ticketing and pricing entirely to their promoters and management," the band declared, distancing themselves from the controversy.
During his appearance before the Select Committee, Parsons described the UK ticketing market as "as competitive as any market in the world" and emphasized the operational independence between Ticketmaster and Live Nation.
Parsons asserted that they "have clear divides between how we operate on a daily basis."
He further explained the rationale behind dynamic pricing:
"If we're not able to [capture] that value, which the artist is doing in those instances, then that money is just going to go, and the tickets are going to be captured and gobbled up by touts."
The government's public consultation aims to explore a variety of measures to curb exploitative resale practices, including potential caps on resale prices. These efforts underscore a broader attempt to ensure fairness and transparency in ticket sales for popular events.
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