Is Ticketmaster out of tune?
If you've recently bought concert tickets, you likely had to go through Ticketmaster – sometimes dealing with hour-long queues, website crashes and sudden price hikes at checkout.
All of that happened during the chaotic ticket sale of British rock band Oasis in the UK and Ireland two weeks ago, prompting investigations by both countries and the European Commission.
Why was the sale controversial?
Ticketmaster is a major ticket seller in 30 countries, nearly half of which are in Europe. It reports selling 500 million tickets worldwide every year – that's 18 tickets per second.
The main controversy is how Ticketmaster prices its tickets. The company relies on ”dynamic pricing”, which adjusts ticket prices based on demand. While commonly used in Europe by airlines, hotels and taxi apps, this type of pricing is relatively new to the events industry.
When artists opt in to dynamic pricing when selling through Ticketmaster to generate more revenue, massive demand can result in extreme price hikes. For the Oasis reunion concerts, the value of standing tickets in Dublin quadrupled, soaring from under €90 to over €400.
Is that allowed?
Flexible pricing is not necessarily an issue in itself, as long as consumers are presented with different options. For flights, you can buy tickets from different companies, picking the price that suits you best. But for cultural events like concerts, there is usually only one option.
In the case of Ticketmaster, the problem is worsened by the platform's dominant position in many countries. In Ireland, Ticketmaster represented 90% of the ticketing sector's market share in 2021. In the UK, it was 40 to 50% of the market at the time that Ticketmaster merged with Live Nation. Ticket sales on the platform have since increased, and so has Ticketmaster's hold on the industry.
The real question is whether Ticketmaster breached competition and/or consumer protection laws. In Ireland, a senator has announced drafting a bill to forbid dynamic pricing for cultural, sporting and entertainment events.
Is the EU doing anything about it?
The European Commission stated that dynamic pricing is not illegal under EU law in November 2023. However, it can breach the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive in certain cases: if the price has increased once the ticket was put in the online basket, or if the platform did not clearly state the price may change due to demand. If such violations are proven, a court case against Ticketmaster would have a chance to succeed.
More concrete measures could also appear in the future. The Commission's interest in the case is part of a broader review of EU Consumer Law on digital fairness, on which a final report is expected in the following months. Following its assessment of the dangers of dynamic pricing, the European Parliament will have to consider solutions to restrict, or even ban it.