By Sky Pinkett
Correspondent
Ticketmaster has recently found itself in hot water once again following accusations from fans reporting overly priced Oasis tickets.
The Manchester-based English rock band Oasis stirred up much excitement after they unexpectedly announced a few reunion tour performance dates to occur in the U.K. and Ireland in 2025.
The American ticket sales company Ticketmaster began the process of selling Oasis concert tickets, but what was supposed to be a monumental moment for English rock enthusiasts instead became a financial headache for fans, and a potential lawsuit for Ticketmaster.
In 2023, Oasis put themselves back in the spotlight with the announcement of a 2025 reunion tour 15 years after the rock band first split. Oasis had first captured the love of English rock fans with their 1994 debut album, “Definitely, Maybe,” that lauded themes of individualism and rebellion in a post-Margaret Thatcher Britain.
Despite the national scale of their success, the members of Oasis accrued a number of very vicious, public spats over the years, with things finally coming to a head in 2009 when the band officially broke up.
Flash forward through a 15-year stalemate between the members, and finally the group has decided to put their differences aside in the name of rock ‘n’ roll.
Once ticket sales went live on Ticketmasters's website, however, trouble began.
According to The Guardian, due to hundreds of thousands of fans patiently waiting for hours on the distribution site for tickets, Ticketmaster made the decision to use its “dynamic ticket pricing model.” This model makes it so that ticket prices increase due to high demand, with the face value of some tickets rising from £135 (about $200) to over £350 (about $469). This, coupled with multiple on-site errors and lag, led to Ticketmaster having a growing tide of angry, disappointed fans.
Yet, ticket buyer dismay may soon become the least of the entertainment conglomerate's problems after the British government vowed to launch an investigation into the company’s dynamic pricing model, as this practice may have breached consumer law that requires purchasers be adequately made aware of any changes in product price.
As for Oasis itself, the band claimed to have been unaware of Ticketmaster's pricing model, instead blaming their management team and Ticketmaster. To make amends, Oasis has announced two additional performance dates that will give fans another opportunity to try buying tickets.
This controversy does little to distance Ticketmaster from its previous controversy with American pop star Taylor Swift last year, where over millions of fans found themselves unable to purchase tickets, with resale prices exceeding thousands of dollars.
The consequences of that mishandling resulted in the U.S. federal government filing an antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment.
Whether this latest fumble will result in the same consequences from the U.K. government remains to be seen. If any legal action were to be taken against Ticketmaster, it could set a precedent for entertainment consumer companies everywhere.
