Promoters of next year’s Oasis reunion shows in the UK have said they will cancel more than 50,000 tickets that were resold on unapproved secondary ticketing sites.
The terms and conditions of tickets to the Oasis shows prohibit resale, allowing promoters to cancel any ticket that has been touted. To that end, a spokesperson for Live Nation and SJM says that the promoters will “start the process of cancelling tickets that are believed to have broken the terms and conditions put in place for the tour in the coming weeks”.
The cancelled tickets will then be made available once again on Ticketmaster. In the meantime, “all parties involved with the tour continue to urge fans not to purchase tickets from unauthorised websites as some of these may be fraudulent and others subject to cancellation”.
As the cancelations go ahead, people who bought tickets from a tout on a resale site will have to claim a refund via that resale site, and then try to secure new tickets on Ticketmaster.
Although that’s a hassle, and the fan could miss out on a ticket entirely, if they are able to secure one through the new round of primary sales, they will likely save money compared to what they paid the tout. Especially if Ticketmaster does not apply dynamic pricing on primary ticket sales this time round, given the backlash that occurred last time.
Most concert tickets have a term prohibiting resale allowing promoters to cancel touted tickets. Doing so requires effort on the part of the artist and their promoters though, so in many cases touted tickets are not cancelled. However, Oasis are not the first to do this, with Ed Sheeran’s efforts to crack down on touting all the way back in 2018 grabbing lots of headlines at the time.
Despite Live Nation and SJM’s intention to cancel touted Oasis tickets, Viagogo has said it will continue to allow tickets to those shows to be sold on its platform. The company’s Matt Drew told the BBC, “we will continue to sell them in the way the regulator says we can - we are serving a clear consumer need, we will continue doing it on that basis”.
Although tickets to in demand shows popping up on secondary sites at hiked up prices always cause controversy, when tickets went on sale for the Oasis shows it was the use of dynamic pricing by official seller Ticketmaster that caused the real backlash.
Supporters of dynamic pricing - where ticket prices increase with demand - argue that, unlike with touting, it is the artist and promoter that benefits from tickets being sold at a higher price. But critics counter that, for the fan, the outcome is the same, ie much higher prices than expected.
Which means the crackdown on touting by the Oasis promoters won’t necessarily win the band the kind of public support that Sheeran received when he sought to restrict the resale of tickets to his shows. Nevertheless, the promoters were keen to big up their anti-touting efforts, including in trying to stop touts from getting access to tickets in the first place.
The Live Nation and SJM spokesperson added that, while they have identified around 50,000 touted tickets to the Oasis shows, that’s about 4% of the total number of tickets available, whereas it’s common for 20% of tickets to major in-demand shows to end up on the secondary market.