50,000 Oasis tickets on secondary platforms will be cancelled

Photo credit: Simon Emmett

Since first announcing the reunion tour in late August, Oasis has become the center of heated debate over live music ticketing practices. Yesterday, the band’s troubled rollout hit a new snag when Live ’25 tour promoters began cracking down on the anti-resale policy, promising to cancel as many as 50,000 tickets currently listed on secondary platforms like Stubhub and Viagogo . With the legality of this pseudo-scalping in question, Liam and Noel Gallagher are once again at the center of larger policy negotiations in the ticketing industry.

The initial release of the Live ’25 tour in Britain and Ireland saw more than 10 million fans queue for 1 million tickets, many of whom left frustrated at what was reportedly an early rollout of Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing mechanism on the European markets. Following strong backlash over unexpected price increases – with some fans paying as much as £355 for standing tickets, more than double the original price of £148.50 – the UK Competition and Markets Authority launched an investigation into “how so-called ‘dynamic pricing’ perhaps used.”

In theory, this technique discourages ticket sales, allowing a significant portion of fans to obtain tickets for less than market price. In practice, thousands of Oasis pass through flooded secondary ticket outlets within hours of release, largely at significantly inflated prices; tour promoters Live Nation and SJM told it BBC that four percent of the million tickets ended up on unauthorized resale sites – just under 50,000.

As the organizations had encouraged fans “not to purchase tickets through unauthorized websites as some of these may be fraudulent and others may be cancelled,” they now plan to follow up on these warnings. According to the promoters, the process of voiding all these policy-violating tickets will begin soon and the recovered inventory will be reactivated at face value on Ticketmaster.

“These terms and conditions have been successfully implemented to take action against secondary ticketing companies who resell tickets for huge profits,” a company spokesperson announced in a statement. “Only four percent of tickets ended up on resale sites. On some major tours, up to 20 percent of tickets appear through the major unauthorized secondary platforms.”

Despite these warnings, Viagogo told the BBC it will not stop selling second-hand tickets within the guidelines of the law. “Two percent of Oasis tickets are through Viagogo and Stubhub,” said Matt Drew, head of business development. “We will continue to sell them in the way the regulator says. We are meeting a clear consumer need and we will continue to do so on that basis.” Although Viagogo violates the ticket policy of only selling through Ticketmaster or resale partner Twickets, it operates legally by only selling legitimately acquired tickets and informing buyers of the promoters’ policies.

It has not yet been determined whether the upcoming introduction of the ticket cancellation policy will apply to Oasis’ North American touror just the previous dates in Great Britain and Ireland. However, fans from the United States have encountered their own problems, as despite moving away from the dynamic pricing model for their North American tour, Oasis’ return has led to a rash of counterfeiting. At the beginning of October the National independent location association called for congressional action when it discovered that as many as 9,000 counterfeit tickets for the Live ’25 tour were currently listed on resale sites – before official sales had even begun.

With a lot of criticism from both Ticketmaster and resellers, the band itself is not immune to criticism. Despite the Gallaghers’ claims that they “leave ticketing and pricing decisions entirely to their promoters and management”, the Britpop duo have completed a 16-year live hiatus. under fire for inciting price gouging by both fans in Britain and The Cure’s Robert Smith, who had a choice, albeit indirect, over words for the duo and others of their esteem.

In an October 13 interview with The times During his own legacy act’s revival tour, Smith said: “It was easy to set ticket prices, but you have to be stubborn. We didn’t allow dynamic pricing because it’s a scam that would disappear if every artist said, “I don’t want that!” But most artists hide behind management. “Oh, we didn’t know that,” they say. They all know it. If they say they don’t, they are stupid or lying. It’s just driven by greed.”

And so the cycle continues. Oasis will undertake a 17-stop tour of Britain and Ireland from July 4 to August 17 next year, then head to North America for nine shows from August 25 to September 13, before five final Australian stagings in October and November . Knowing the band, they will undoubtedly be in the news again before then. Stay tuned for the next curveball.

For more information about Oasis’ Live ’25 tour, visit oasenet.com.