Ticket pricing for Oasis’ reunion tour has prompted calls for an investigation as “in-demand prices” saw some tickets advertised at five times their original price.
Politicians have accused Ticketmaster of “fleecing fans” with its dynamic ticket pricing, which means prices change depending on demand for gigs.
All tickets for Oasis’s 2025 UK and Ireland gigs sold out, the band said on social media platform X at 7pm on Saturday.
The legendary Britpop band announced they would play a series of gigs across the UK and Ireland next year, 16 years after they broke up following a backstage brawl at a festival in Paris in 2009.
Dynamic pricing on Ticketmaster has now set some remaining tickets at around £355 plus fees.
Meanwhile, on ticket resale websites, prices ranged, but the lowest seen on Saturday afternoon was £537 while the highest was £14,104.
A handful of standing tickets were on sale for the London shows on Viagogo on Saturday, ranging from £773 to £1,512. Seated tickets for London ranged from £655 to £5,971.
Labour MP for St Helens North David Baines took to X to complain about the ticket company changing prices to “rake in the cash”.
He wrote: “After rightly criticising those who got presale tickets and then immediately tried to resell them for huge profits, it’s shocking to hear that Ticketmaster UK are now using ‘dynamic pricing’ to fleece fans and rake in the cash.
“Especially insulting for those who have queued all day.”
After rightly criticising those who got presale tickets and then immediately tried to resell them for huge profits, it’s shocking to hear that @TicketmasterUK are now using ‘dynamic pricing’ to fleece fans & rake in the cash. Especially insulting for those who have queued all day
— David Baines MP (@DavidBainesMP) August 31, 2024
Oasis superfans expressed their heartbreak as ticket prices shot up, posting on social media that hiking ticket prices during the sale is “scandalous and makes them as bad as the touts”.
One Londoner waited four hours in a virtual queue on Ticketmaster, only to be booted off the site when they were mistaken for a bot.
Emma Lillelund had four tickets in her basket to see the band at Wembley Stadium when the Ticketmaster website reset and pushed her out.
When she reloaded the page there were 200,000 people in front of her.
The 29-year-old also criticised the price of tickets.
She told the Standard: “They said they don’t want any resale tickets at more than face value and then they allow dynamic pricing.
“A premium package was £300 when face value it was meant to be like £70 to £80.
“It was £400 for some of the lower tier tickets. It’s absolute insanity and hypocrisy.”
Dan Johnston bought four tickets at £350 each to see Oasis in London.
He told the Standard: “If a company says a ticket will be £151 and that these tickets cannot be sold for anything more than face value or the tickets will be cancelled.
“How can they then justify themselves upping the price £200 extra before they even sell out of the tickets?
“Someone has paid £151 for the same ticket from the same company as I have paid over £350 with absolutely no difference. Is this profiteering?”
Irish MEP Regina Doherty has called for an investigation into the pricing structure for tickets sold for the two Oasis gigs at Croke Park in Dublin.
The Fine Gael representative for the Dublin constituency urged Ireland’s Competition and Consumer Commission to examine the process.
“When ticket prices were advertised earlier this week, standing tickets in Croke Park were 86.50 euro plus booking fees, but when many people eventually got through the online queue this morning, they were faced with the exact same ticket at a price of 415.50 euro,” she said.
“That’s not transparent advertising and certainly not fair to consumers.
“The EU’s Digital Services Act has sections included specifically to ensure large platforms that control aspects of the digital economy don’t just make up their own rules that are unfair for consumers.”
She said the “in-demand” pricing structure needed to be examined.
“Every ticket for these gigs was always going to be ‘in demand’ so slapping an extra label and 300 euro on some standing tickets is just extortionate,” she added.
Fans hoping to secure tickets to see the band’s reunion tour shared their “nightmare” situations after they queued for hours in the hope of seeing the Gallagher brothers back together on stage.
General tickets went on sale for the band’s comeback tour at 9am on Saturday for those in the UK and 8am for fans in Ireland.
But online platforms experienced outages and tech issues, leaving fans in a virtual queue for around five hours.
Oasis fans struggled to secure general sale tickets for the band’s comeback as booking websites experienced outages.
Manchester-based promoter SJM Concerts’ website Gigs and Tours faced issues even before tickets went on sale for the UK shows at 9am.
The site displayed messages saying: “Please bear with us. At the moment there are a lot of people on the site looking for tickets, so we have put a queuing system in place, which is completely normal.
“This page will refresh automatically and we’ll get you where you want to be as soon as a space opens up. Thank you for your patience!”
Similar issues were encountered on the ticketmaster.ie page for the two shows at Dublin’s Croke Park, which went on sale at 8am.
Instead of a page opening to buy tickets, an error number was displayed, which usually indicates a webpage is unable to handle any more connections.
An explanation on the Ticketmaster website about the “in-demand standing ticket” price says: “The event organiser has priced these tickets according to their market value.
“Tickets do not include VIP packages. Availability and pricing are subject to change.”
When asked about this issue by the PA news agency, Ticketmaster said it does not set prices, and shared a link to its website where it says costs can be “fixed or market-based”.
Ticketmaster has been contacted for further comment.
