For Britpop fans, it was the reunion they had been waiting for since Oasis’ legendary gigs at Maine Road, Knebworth and their ‘last’ gig at V Festival in 2009. Many fans waited patiently at their keyboards at 9am on Saturday morning to purchase the tickets. Unfortunately, in the hours which followed the tickets going on sale, it was dynamic pricing that occupied the news headlines and not the Gallagher brothers’ much anticipated reunion.

What is dynamic pricing?

In a nutshell, dynamic pricing is when the price of a product, in this case concert tickets, adjusts based on the demand. On Saturday morning, demand for Oasis tickets was very high (unsurprisingly). and so the prices increased.

Dynamic pricing is something we have seen over the years in the transportation and holiday industries, with some flights increasing at times when there is more demand such as school holidays and the summer months.

Consumer law

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 (CRA) is applicable to the sale of tickets from primary ticket sellers. Interestingly, under the CRA secondary ticketing or resale of tickets has a specific section within the legislation, but primary sales do not, so the usual consumer laws apply, such as that goods should be as described and price clearly should be explained.

The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 is also applicable to the sale of goods and services. If a trader misleads consumers regarding the sale of the tickets, then it is a breach if that decision causes the consumer to take a different “transactional decision”. Last Saturday, it is likely many fans would not have joined the queue had they known the true prices they would need to pay to be able to purchase the tickets.

Misrepresentation

Businesses such as ticket sellers do also need to be very careful of a misrepresentation. In contract law a misrepresentation occurs when one party, party A, tells another party, party B, something that isn’t correct to induce party B into entering into a contract. However, in the case of dynamic pricing there may not be a misrepresentation because at the time of entering into a contract (buying the ticket), the price will be clearly displayed on the computer screen and the consumer will know how much is being paid even if it is more than the price originally expected, or the price added to the basket.

Who would the legal action be against

Consumers who wish to bring litigation in relation to ticket pricing can bring their legal action directly against the ticket seller because the contract of sale is between the seller and the consumer.

Could regulators become involved?

Since tickets went on sale, some media reports have suggested that the Competition Markets Authority (CMA) may review dynamic pricing and the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has reportedly received complaints that tickets were priced at a higher value than the advertised price. If the ASA suspect that consumers are being ‘misled’ by ticket sellers, they will consider if there has been a breach of the CAP Code.

In 2018, the ASA did take action against four secondary ticketing websites for not making clear the total price at the beginning of the customer journey, not including the booking (including VAT) upfront and not making clear the delivery fee. It does have to be said that the suggestion here is that primary ticket sellers and not secondary sellers applied dynamic pricing. Additionally, Oasis made it clear that tickets sold by secondary ticketing website will be cancelled.

The Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has even become involved promising that Ministers will look at dynamic pricing.