Law proposed to guarantee maximum ticket prices following Oasis backlash
21 October 2024, 13:35
A law guaranteeing maximum prices has been proposed following the backlash over the dynamic model used for the sale of tickets for the Oasis reunion.
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Fans waited for hours in an online Ticketmaster queue in August before facing as much as £350 per ticket, around £200 more than had been advertised due to extremely high demand.
Labour MP Rupa Huq has now put forward the Sale of Tickets Bill to the House of Commons in a bid, she says, to improve transparency on pricing and protect consumers.
Ms Huq, who is the MP for Ealing Central and Acton, said: “As a lifelong music fan, I, like many of the nation, was scandalised to see the recent situation where people were queuing up for the best part of a day to get Oasis tickets.
“And the pressure is immense when you’re refreshing for six hours to find yourself then finally at the top of the queue, you feel you have to go for it. But by then the ticket is five times the price of what you thought it was when advertised.”
Ms Huq added: “From a consumer protection point of view, our constituents would like some certainty and so this Bill would enshrine in statute a maximum price.”
The government and the UK’s competition watchdog have both pledged to look into the practice while the Prime Minister has also promised to get a “grip” on the issue.
Asked if he could change the law in September, Sir Keir Starmer told the BBC: “We’re consulting, and it may well mean adjustments.”
Read more: Oasis hit out at Ticketmaster over 'dynamic pricing' row
Oasis distanced themselves from the “dynamic pricing” model in September.
A statement from the band said: "It needs to be made clear that Oasis leave decisions on ticketing and pricing entirely to their promoters and management, and at no time had any awareness that dynamic pricing was going to be used.”
Ms Huq, who said she watched Oasis live in the 1990s, added: “There should be some certainty, some predictability, particularly as we’re in a cost-of-living crisis… The ticket merchants can literally double it, triple it, think of a number – infinity and beyond.
“This won’t outlaw dynamic pricing, it’s just introducing transparency and certainty because there is a place for the market as well.”
Ms Huq is currently developing the text for the Bill which has attracted support from MPs from different parties and could be considered further in the House of Commons on 6 December.
Ministers have said the government will launch a consultation on the secondary ticket market in the autumn.
