The sales window for Oasis’s two Irish reunion gigs in Croke Park opened at 8am on Saturday morning and within minutes, 500,000 had joined the queue – all looking to get their hands on one of the 160,000 available tickets.
Although tickets had been advertised as being priced from €86.50 subject to service charges, some tickets appeared to almost triple in price – with standing tickets originally set at €176 jumping to over €400.
The reason for this is dynamic pricing which is a strategy commonly used by hotels and airlines whereby products don’t have set prices but rather can have their prices adjusted by the seller subject to changing demand.
This is in line with Irish consumer law as long as an accurate price is displayed to the consumer in advance of the sale so the consumer can decide whether or not they want to proceed.
Responding to the controversy however, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission says there are “legitimate concerns around the consumer experiences” of the Oasis ticket sale and that it’s “actively reviewing the situation”.
Tulla Fianna Fáil Senator Timmy Dooley has written to the CCPC requesting an investigation into what he calls the “ticket sales stunt”.
He says political representatives across the board must work together to ensure Ireland doesn’t become the “Wild West” when it comes to concert ticket sales.
Taoiseach Simon Harris has admitted the debacle has left a “bad taste in the mouths of people” and has supported calls for a review into Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation Entertainment.
The company also owns the concerts’ promoter, MCD Productions.
Ennis native, singer-songwriter and founding member of Stocktons Wing, Mike Hanrahan, fears if people are forced to pay such high prices for popular concerts, they’ll be less inclined to support smaller artists.
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