Oasis, prices become a case (and the band returns to the charts)

The controversy surrounding ticket sales for the Oasis reunion concerts continues unabated. And at the center of the media storm is Ticketmasterthe Live Nation group platform that the Gallagher brothers relied on to sell the tickets, which sold out in less than a day (1.4 million tickets sold in total for the 17 shows in Great Britain: no others will be announced in Europe for 2024). Many fans, when it came time to buy tickets, found themselves having to spend more money than they had anticipated when reading the prices for the various sectors.: is the practice of the so-called “

dynamic pricing”, which consists of increasing prices based on demand. A legal practice that has nothing to do with secondary ticketing and online speculation, through which promoters aim to maximize profits by leveraging market demand, which consists of setting the price of concert tickets based on demand, which has however generated discontent among fans. And so after the British government announced yesterday that it will launch an investigation into the practice, now the Guardian returns to the subject, questioning some experts in the sector. According to them, theFailure to communicate the use of “dynamic pricing” may have violated the law.

Sylvia Rook, head of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI), told the British newspaper: “It is a breach of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Commercial Practices Regulations (2008) if a trader misles consumers about the price of goods and services.In this case, many consumers would not have queued if they had known that the price would increase before they could purchase, and many fans could not afford the price increase.”

On Monday, consumer group Which? urged the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to clarify whether Ticketmaster’s use of dynamic pricing for the Oasis tour was compliant with the law. Ticketmaster responded by stressing that the final pricing strategy had been determined by Oasis and their management..

Meanwhile The announcement of the reunion and tour makes the streams of Oasis songs and albums skyrocket. That fifteen years after the reunion they are taking back the charts. In the UK this week three of the top five positions in the UK’s best-selling albums chart, compiled and published by the Official Charts Company, are occupied by albums by the Gallagher brothers. Oasis occupy third place with the collection “Time flies – 1994-2009”, behind Sabrina Carpenter and her “Short ‘n sweet” and Fontaines DC and their “Romance”, fourth place with “(What’s the story) Morning glory?” and fifth place with “Definitely maybe”.