Oasis 2025, British Prime Minister intervenes on crazy prices: what’s happening

Ticketmaster under fire from UK antitrust regulator over pricing of Oasis concert tickets.

Following the exorbitant prices reached for the London dates of the Gallagher brothers’ reunion, yesterday even British Prime Minister Keir Starmer intervened, calling the exorbitant cost of tickets “depressing” and promising to intervene.

The UK’s Competition Authority (CMA) has today put the system of ‘dynamic pricing’ – where prices rise as demand increases – under the microscope to determine whether it is an unfair commercial practice that breaches competition rules.

Specifically, it is whether the online event sales giant provided clear and timely information to explain that tickets could be subject to so-called ‘dynamic pricing’ and whether consumers were pressured to buy tickets within a short period of time at a higher price than they understood they would have to pay. The CMA said it will now engage with Ticketmaster and gather evidence from several other sources, including the band’s management and the event organisers.

“It’s clear that many people have had a negative experience and were surprised by the price of their tickets when they paid,” explains CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell.