Almost seven months after kicking off an investigation into Ticketmaster, the UK’s CMA is calling for the platform to make multiple changes. Photo Credit: Simon Emmett
Ticketmaster “may have breached consumer protection law” when selling Oasis tickets – at least according to the UK’s CMA. Now, the competition watchdog is “engaging with” the Live Nation subsidiary on sought changes.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) disclosed as much in a brief update on its Ticketmaster investigation, which kicked off in September 2024. This probe, we reported seven months back, initiated after strong demand sent Oasis ticket prices into the stratosphere.
Even so – and despite the CMA’s continued references to the relevant reunion tour – regulators underscored that the inquiry would extend to several components of Ticketmaster’s operations.
Returning to the CMA’s new update, then, the entity is said to be “concerned that Ticketmaster’s approach may have misled Oasis fans,” hence the initially mentioned alleged consumer protection law violations.
Interestingly, the qualms at hand don’t appear to involve an “algorithmic pricing model” – meaning Dynamic Pricing, which adjusts ticket costs based on actual demand and which Oasis ditched for its North American tour leg.
(In fact, the CMA “has not found evidence that” Dynamic Pricing factored into the situation at all. “Instead, Ticketmaster released a number of standing tickets at a lower price and, once they had sold out, then released the remaining standing tickets at a much higher price.”)
Rather, the CMA pointed to alleged misrepresentations regarding “platinum” tickets.
In short, during the Oasis on-sale, Ticketmaster allegedly jacked up those passes’ prices “without sufficiently explaining that they did not offer additional benefits and were often located in the same area of the stadium” as their non-platinum counterparts.
“This risked giving consumers the misleading impression that platinum tickets were better,” the CMA claimed.
Additionally, the CMA in a 61-word sentence pointed to a second alleged Ticketmaster misrepresentation, pertaining to Oasis’ standing-ticket prices.
“Not informing consumers that there were two categories of standing tickets at different prices,” the CMA penned of Ticketmaster’s alleged infraction, “with all of the cheaper standing tickets sold first before the more expensive standing tickets were released, resulting in many fans waiting in a lengthy queue without understanding what they would be paying and then having to decide whether to pay a higher price than they expected.”
Of course, we should know sooner rather than later whether the investigation’s “enforcement stage” has teeth.
At present, the Live Nation-owned ticketing platform (which, citing alleged bot purchases, canceled a number of Oasis tickets last month) “has made changes to some aspects of its ticket sales process,” per the CMA.
But these purported adjustments aren’t “sufficient to address” the concerns, the agency communicated. Now, talks are said to be ongoing between the CMA and Ticketmaster on further changes to ticket labels, information provided to consumers, and more.
In a concise statement, Ticketmaster UK told DMN that it continues to “welcome the CMA’s input.”
“At Ticketmaster,” the company relayed to DMN, “we strive to provide the best ticketing platform through a simple, transparent and consumer-friendly experience. We welcome the CMA’s input in helping make the industry even better for fans.”
Stateside, Live Nation recently settled an investor class action, but is still staring down a DOJ antitrust suit.
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