Ticketmaster may have violated the pricing of Oasis tickets, says CMA | Ticket

The British competitive guard has explained that Ticketmaster may have violated the Consumer Protection Act in the way in which more than 900,000 tickets for the Oasis Reunion tour sold last year.

An investigation by the competition and market authority (CMA) has shown that ticketmaster may have misled fans, some of which have paid more than 350 GBP for tickets with a nominal value of £ 150, which paid tickets for the band’s comeback gigs this year.

The CMA said that the Ticket giant may have “violated” the consumer protection law by describing certain seats as “platinum” and almost selling the price of the price for standard -equivalent tickets without sufficient explaining that they do not offer any additional advantages and were often in the same area of ​​a stadium as standard maps.

The regulatory authority also said that the fans were not communicated that there were two categories of standing tickets at different prices, whereby many long periods of time in online maintenance queues were waiting without understanding that they would pay much higher prices than they expected.

Hayley Fletcher, Interim Senior Director of Consumer Protection at CMA, said: “The fans reported problems with the purchase of Oasis tickets from Ticketmaster, and we decided to justify the investigations.

“We are concerned that Oasis fans did not receive the information they needed or possibly led to the purchase of tickets that they considered better than them.”

Consumer Group which? Previously said that Oasis and Ticketmaster should reimburse fans who paid hundreds of pounds more than the nominal value of the tickets after “dynamic pricing” was used to increase prices.

However, the CMA said on Tuesday that many fans had an impression that Ticketmaster used an algorithmic price model during the Oasis sale that adapted the prices in real time in accordance with demand.

Instead, ticketmaster sold a number of constant tickets at a cheaper price and, if they were sold out, became more at a much higher price.

“Although the prices were not adapted in real time with an algorithm, the CMA is concerned that consumers do not receive any clear and timely information about how pricing would work for standing tickets,” said the CMA, “especially where many customers had to wait in longer queues to see which tickets were available.”

The CMA said that Ticketmaster has made changes to “some aspects” of the ticket sales process since its investigation opened, but the regulatory authority is not considering this changes to clear out their concerns “.

The regulatory authority is now in consultation with the ticket giant.

“We now expect Ticketmaster to work with us to clear up these concerns. In the future, fans can make well -informed decisions when buying tickets,” said Fletcher. “All ticketing websites should check whether they comply with the law and treat their customers fairly. If companies do it correctly, consumers benefit – and that is the best result for everyone.”

Ticketmaster said in a statement: “At Ticketmaster we strive to offer the best ticket platform through a simple, transparent and consumer-friendly experience. We welcome the CMA’s input to make the industry even better.”

On Monday, the CMA said for the first time that it would support a ceiling on “secondary” ticket prices. The move would almost prohibit the resale of music and theater cards, which is not illegal, although some applications for the use of fraudulent methods were detained as part of their business practices.