UK competition regulator launches investigation into Ticketmaster amid Oasis fan anger

British authorities had announced that they would look into the sale of tickets for Oasis concerts since the blunder on August 31, the day the ticket office opened on Ticketmaster UK.

The UK’s competition authority, the CMA, announced on Thursday 5 September that it was opening an investigation into ticket reseller Ticketmaster, following the fiasco on Saturday of the sale of tickets for the upcoming Oasis tour, due to dynamic pricing which caused prices to soar and angered fans.

This action “follows reports from fans of significant issues with Ticketmaster”the regulator wrote in a statement, which will study whether “Buyers received clear information” and if “consumer protection law has been violated.”

She will also look to see if the fans “were put under pressure to buy tickets in a short period of time at a higher price than they thought they would have to pay, which could impact their purchasing decisions“. “It is clear that many people felt they had a bad experience and were surprised by the price of their tickets when paying.”explained Sarah Cardell, the CMA’s chief executive, quoted in the press release.

“We want to hear from fans who have gone through the process and may have encountered issues,” she added. This feedback can be done via an online form.

The Gallagher brothers announced in late August that they were reforming Oasis, an iconic Britpop band, for a series of concerts in the United Kingdom and Ireland in the summer of 2025, sparking great excitement fifteen years after their split.

But the chaotic sale of tickets on Saturday 31 August, when the box office opened, for the dates in Cardiff, Manchester, London, Edinburgh and Dublin – all sold out during the day – sparked anger and frustration among buyers, who faced numerous breakdowns on saturated sales platforms and discovered at the last minute that a “dynamic pricing” had caused prices to soar.

In the face of the controversy, the British government has promised to look into these controversial methods of selling concert tickets, particularly the pricing practice that has caused the price of some tickets for the tour to soar from £150 to more than £350. Dynamic pricing, “which consists of a company adjusting its prices according to changing market conditions, in particular strong demand, is becoming more and more widespread” And “Although this practice is not automatically illegal, it may in certain circumstances infringe consumer protection or competition law”notes the CMA.

Ticketmaster had assured that it did not set concert prices and indicated on its website that this criterion depended on “the event organizer”which determined the tariff “based on market value” tickets. The group denied Wednesday night that it was behind the unexpected price increase. In total, more than 1.4 million tickets were sold on Saturday, the BBC estimated.

This isn’t the first time Ticketmaster has found itself in the hot seat. Fans of megastar Taylor Swift stepped up and took the matter to court following similar chaos around the time of the announcement of her 2022 “Eras” tour. US authorities also sued the owner of ticket resale site Live Nation, Ticketmaster’s parent companyThe quasi-monopoly enjoyed by the company has been a cause for concern for years.

Oasis announced on Wednesday (September 4) two additional concert dates in London in September 2025, due to the “phenomenal demand” for his tour, and will change the way he sells his tickets.