Gosport MP criticises ticket pricing after Oasis fans saw ticket prices rise to £400

The Conservative MP admitted to being one of the 14 million people from 158 countries logged on to a digital queue to buy tickets to the Oasis Live 25 reunion tour on August 31.

Once through the portal, fans were given a few minutes to decide whether to buy at the inflated prices.

Speaking during a debate in parliament, she said: “Someone compared the ticket purchase after such a long wait to the dopamine rush of a gambler. The £150 to £400 price increase meant that the transaction was no longer a choice, but more of an impulse buy.

“The soundtrack to our youth has morphed into a conversation about exploitative practices in the music industry that hurt fans and the grassroots sector.”

Watchdog the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating the debacle, deciding if fans were given “clear and timely information” about pricing in the first place.

During the debate, she disputed whether dynamic pricing has a place and is an acceptable way forward in the music industry sector.

She said: “The dynamic pricing mechanism employed by Oasis, their promoters and management via Ticketmaster served to increase the price of tickets in line with demand, but in reality, it resulted in a kind of lucky dip game in which the price got worse and worse by no clear mechanism except the secret and opaque rules of a computer algorithm in the hands of Ticketmaster.”

She also highlighted the importance of grassroots music venues but said of the 34 venues Oasis played on their first tour in 1994, only 11 still exist.

Chris Bryant, minister for creative industries, arts and tourism, said: “Live events are really important to the British creative economy, and to the whole economy in the UK. Live music is really important to our economy as 200,000 people worked in the industry last year.”

He said the government will look at issues concerning the transparency and use of dynamic pricing in the live events sector, and was carefully considering how that is taken forward in the light after the CMA concludes its investigation.

The Prime Minister said that the government is committed to putting fans at the heart of music and ending extortionate resales and will be launching a new consultation in the autumn which includes how to protect consumers on ticket resales.

Mr Bryant said the government stood ready to do what it could to try to slow down, if not halt, that process of closure. He agreed with Ms Dinenage that if an act does not have somewhere to start with a capacity of 250 or 300 or 500, how will they ever grow to end up filling Wembley or any arenas?

He said there are new challenges with modern-day ticketing technologies of apps and QR codes which include ticket security, fair pricing and transparency of pricing.

Dynamic pricing is used by companies such as Uber and by hotels and airlines, with prices changed to reflect supply and demand.

The band released their first album 30 years ago, “Definitely Maybe” and broke up 15 years ago with this much-anticipated reunion fuelling ticket sales mania.

On social media Ms Dinenage MP said: “It wasn’t right that @oasis fans waited up to 10 hours only to be greeted with ticket prices far and above what they were expecting.”

You can see a video of her in parliament discussing the subject here.