Oasis, what is the “dynamic pricing” that made ticket prices explode?

In the last two years the most striking case was that of the tickets for the Eras Tour of Taylor Swift. So much so that even US President Joe Biden intervened, without major consequences to be honest, and a US Congressman and Senator, Daniel Carey and John Velis, presented a bill in 2023 that was soon renamed the “Taylor Swift Bill”, which was finally approved recently only by Minnesota. Objective: keep live event ticket prices low. A hot topic, obviously, because it means intervening in the free market dynamics especially when the request is sensational. And at the crossroads of many, perhaps too many, subjects involved: artists, promoters, retailers and the entertainment industry as a whole.

With the Oasis reunionand the 17 dates of the first part of their world tour in the United Kingdom – two more have recently been added in Wembley, on 27 and 28 September 2025 – also in Europe we have so to speak appreciated perhaps more clearly also in the live music sector the risks of the «dynamic pricing» at full speed, much more familiar to US consumers. Witnessing a certainly unrepeatable spectacle of how online ticketing platforms actually never work – or maybe they do: from their point of view everything went wonderfully, since they are said to have placed a million tickets – when there is a record demand to manage. Entrusting a large part of the fans’ wishes to chance and to the wallet – in the sense that, for ordinary people and with a few exceptions, the rush for tickets has resolved itself at best with a range of seats to choose from reduced to the most expensive. Or indeed to the automatically inflated ones: for Oasis – who said they were essentially unaware of the application of the mechanism – the official prices from 73 to 250 pounds, excluding VIP packages and other experiences, were paid by very few.

After the mess last weekend regarding the Gallagher brothers’ dates, with the official websites – Ticketmaster above all – basically gone mad and collapsed (even if not formally, but the continuous disruptions are still a sign of an infrastructure that has not held up) under the weight of endless digital files, even The British government has promised an investigationThe aim is to delve deeper into the “dynamic pricing” model, that is, price changes governed by algorithms. based on the request but also on many other factors that profile the userwhich has led to some rather irritating cases. Perhaps the most scandalous, as reported by many users on social media, is that of the so-called “In demand” standing places that have more than doubled in the time it takes to process the various “queues”: from £135 to £337.50. An increase that was also difficult to realize, given that Ticketmaster allows just 3 minutes to complete the transaction.

Meanwhile, digital ticket scalper systems have gone on a binge, putting tickets back on sale on sites like Viagogo And Gigsberg at prices that can reach thousands of pounds: at the time of writing, a standing ticket for the pit, that is, the area in front of the stage, costs over a thousand euros with peaks of 3,200. If those are not authorized resellers, and are offering (as is the case with Gigsberg) over 500 tickets just for the date of July 4, 2025 in Cardiff, it means that the official system has not worked, giving way to purchases made by automated bots that also contribute to frustrating ordinary fans. Of the approximately one million tickets sold, therefore, a good share has ended up in the wrong hands. Among other things, it is also proof that national regulations on the so-called «secondary ticketing» – which have sometimes led to sanctions for the platforms that practice it, such as that of the Italian Agcom against Viagogo last year – in fact have no effect because the market is so rich and internationalized that it risks all kinds of tricks and goes beyond any mild attempt at containment within the confines of a single market. Especially in the case of tours of this magnitude. For the September 2025 dates, however, it will proceed only by invitation after a draw, with priority given to fans who were unable to complete transactions – even if it is not clear how they will be identified.

Lisa NandyBritish Culture Secretary, explained to the Guardian how it was “depressing to see massively inflated prices preventing ordinary fans from having the opportunity to enjoy their favourite band live”. Adding that “this government is committed to putting fans back at the centre of music. So we will include issues of transparency and the use of dynamic pricing, including queuing technology that incentivises it, in our upcoming consultation on consumer protection for ticket resale”. As always in the words of politicians, the idea is “to create a fairer system that puts an end to the scourge of touts and fraudulent resales and ensures tickets are fairly priced”. The mechanism of “dynamic pricing” – also applied fiercely in other sectors, such as tourism with airlines and hotels as well as on many e-commerce platforms – is not illegal in the European Union as long as users have full awareness and transparency of the fact that it is being implemented. Very difficult to prove in the delirium of the weekend on Ticketmaster. If it’s the market, baby – and we can even agree – it’s a market that doesn’t want to respect even the most basic rules of the game.