Ticketmaster UK boss tells MPs prices are very fair

The boss of Ticketmaster UK has told MPs tickets are” very fairly priced”.

Andrew Parsons was appearing before the Business and Trade Select Committee, after fans slammed his company’s “dynamic pricing” of Oasis reunion-tour tickets last summer.

The company did not set ticket prices, which were decided ahead of sales, he said.

“Where differing price tiers [are] made available, that’s a choice of the event organiser. Selling a small amount of tickets at a higher-priced tier seems fairly reasonable.”

Many fans said they had paid significantly more than expected for tickets to see Oasis – up to £350 per ticket, about £200 more than advertised.

But Mr Parsons denied prices fluctuated during a general sale.

“We work closely with event organisers to be able sell tickets at the prices that they’ve determined,” he told the committee.

“There’s no technology-driven change to those prices.

“They are the prices which humans have agreed to.

“There’s not a computer or a bot behind it.”

The band themselves had also hit out at the system, saying: “It needs to be made clear that Oasis leave decisions on ticketing and pricing entirely to their promoters and management.”

But Mr Parsons told the committee: “If we’re not able to [capture] that value, which the artist is doing in those instances, then that money is just going to go, and the tickets are going to be captured and gobbled up by touts.”

The MPs did not ask about the Oasis sale specifically, as the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) is looking into whether Ticketmaster breached consumer-protection law.

Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation, is the world’s biggest live events promoter.

And Charlie Maynard MP urged the CMA, also represented at the hearing, to launch a separate investigation into Live Nation’s “dominant market share”.

But Mr Parsons told the committee Ticketmaster and Live Nation “have clear divides between how we operate on a daily basis” and the UK ticketing market was “as competitive as any market in the world”.

Ticketmaster UK also criticised the government’s proposed 30% cap on the resale of tickets.

Mr Parsons said the company was in favour of a cap but “30% still gives the opportunity for touts to be able to be running a business in that manner”.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy announced plans last month to clamp down on touts who bulk-buy tickets and then resell them for huge profits.