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FIANNA FÁIL SENATOR Timmy Dooley is to introduce legislation that would ban so-called dynamic pricing in order to protect consumers from being “ripped off” when buying tickets for cultural events.
Dooley and his party colleagues TDs Jim O’Callaghan and Niamh Smyth will introduce the Sale of Tickets (Cultural, Entertainment, Recreational and Sporting Events) (Amendment) Bill 2024, a private members’ bill, today.
The move to ban the practice comes after the cost of Oasis concert tickets caused uproar among the public. Dynamic pricing meant that ticket prices rose in line with demand, so people ended up paying much higher prices than they expected to.
The high prices led numerous politicians to call for an investigation into the ticket sales giant Ticketmaster.
Dynamic pricing is used in other industries too, for example by airlines and hotels.
The new Bill would extend the Sale of Tickets (Cultural, Entertainment, Recreational and Sporting Events) Act 2021 so that it prohibits the sale of tickets or ticket packages for prices that have been adjusted by primary ticket sellers through the process of dynamic pricing, a Fianna Fáil statement said.
“This is a consumer issue. This is about protecting consumers from being ripped off by technological practices,” Senator Dooley said.
“People attending any event, not just concerts, should be confident that when they are waiting in an online queue to purchase a ticket they will pay the price that was initially advertised.
“Over the weekend, this was not the case for fans of Oasis. After waiting in an online queue fans were met by ‘in demand’ tickets that were for sale at over €400 each.
“We all recognise that online sales have revolutionised ticketing and nobody wants a return to the days of queues down the street and around the corner from a ticket office.
He said the “emerging practice of dynamic pricing must be nipped in the bud”before it becomes commonplace for other events like the All-Ireland final.
The Sale of Tickets (Cultural, Entertainment, Recreational and Sporting Events) Act came into effect in 2021 and banned the reselling of tickets above face value, commonly called ticket touting.
O’Callaghan said the original Act must be extended “so we can protect fans from the experience of seeing ‘in demand’ tickets jumping significantly above the asking price that was initially advertised.”
Meanwhile, the UK’s competition watchdog has today launched an investigation into Ticketmaster over Oasis concert ticket sales there.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said its investigation would include how so-called dynamic pricing may have been used and would scrutinise whether the sale of Oasis tickets by Ticketmaster may have breached consumer protection law.
The investigation would consider whether Ticketmaster had engaged in unfair commercial practices, if people were given clear and timely information to explain that the tickets could be subject to dynamic pricing, and if consumers were put under pressure to buy tickets within a short period of time – at a higher price than they understood they would have to pay.
CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell said: “It’s important that fans are treated fairly when they buy tickets, which is why we’ve launched this investigation.
“It’s clear that many people felt they had a bad experience and were surprised by the price of their tickets at check-out.”
With reporting from Press Association
Can we have that for houses too please
@Thomas Sheridan: 100% new homes are starring at 400k now and second hands are increasing to match its a complete mess.
@Thomas Sheridan: and bike sheds
@Thomas Sheridan: And their salaries as well.
@Thomas Sheridan: … and children’s hospitals too
@Joe Mc Dermott: approximately 6153 bike sheds for the price of 1 hospital. At least the shed was completed on time, so great value for our money. Imagine the cost if it had been delayed.
They use dynamic pricing for hotels too .Will that be banned?
@niamh hayes: It should be capped at the posted price with out of season discounts. But that’s not in this.
@niamh hayes: no they don’t. Price advertised is what you pay. There are many hotels to stay in – pick another hotel if it’s too expensive.
@Eoghan: but hotels cancelled all bookings and readvertised them the next day at inflated prices
@Joe Mc Dermott: did you have a deposit Joe? What’s in your contract with them?
@Eoghan: Found the Hotelier
@Darren McEneaney: I think he’s right though. If you go to book a hotel you usually have 2 or 3 prices offering different things but all for the same room.
@Eoghan: Does not matter.
It would cost far too much to hold these hotels to account.
And they know that.
@niamh hayes: you have a choice of hotels, you do t have a choice of bands
Where was the legislation for price gouging by energy companies..
@Will Q: waste companies, insurance companies, etc. etc. Fine Gael Haven.
Should ban the property tax, robbing duckers!!!
@den: or at least get something in return for it like most other countries,
@CP: What do other countries get for their Property Tax?
@den: Just be glad that it’s a lot lower than UK council tax. If my daughter wasn’t a student (this exempt) she would be paying five times as much tax on a two bed shoebox as we pay on the six bed family home.
@den: And USC….
@CP: LPT goes back to county councils and pays for local services. One example of it is where someone gets a housing adaptation grant from their council, 20% of that is funded by LPT
@Jo H: The councils worked well enough before the Home Tax.
Now they have too much money, and squander it far too often.
There should *never* be a tax on a persons home.
If anyone can charge you to live in “your” home, then it is now truly yours.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: Not sure about other countries, but I know in the UK it covers amongst other things waste collection, lighting, roads, public facilities such as parks, libraries etc. So while we probably pay less property/council tax than other countries, our public facilities are quite poor compared to other countries.
@den: lpt was introduced after the financial crash 2008/9. They were forced to get new income streams. We have to thank our government that the amount is kept this low. Other countries home owners have to pay a multiple of our amounts and every town and city set their own rates. Anyone complaining about 15€/ month should look what needs to be paid for example in Germany and the city of your choice Ireland’s LPT is an absolute bargain
@The Firestarter: FF got rid of local rates in 1977. Local services on downward spiral ever since!
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: Property tax & directly elected mayors (actual local democracy) make it more likely that towns and villages are properly maintained and less likely to go derelict with footpaths, sports facilities, local schools, water and waste services. Something we can only dream of in Ireland.
Personally I think this is nonsense as nobody is forcing anyone to buy tickets to gigs, it’s just look at me Im actually doing something. They could be looking at cost of living,etc energy and groceries
@Nigel Hayden: It’s illegal to advertise a product or service at one price and once checkout is reached for it to have increased 400%.
Ticketmaster were at the same thing in the States, there was a Senate Investigation into their monopoly of the market and that’s now being broken up.
@Patrick Kennedy: The key word in their adverts was ‘from’. They advertised standing tickets ‘from €86.50′. As long as some are sold at €86.50 they can charge what they like for the rest. People paid €350 and more so those people must feel Oasis are worth €350 or more. But Ticketmaster have an unfair monopoly. The business needs competition.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: And that is why there needs to be laws to control these activities.
They have brought it upon themselves.
(Here and in the US.)
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: No actually you’re wrong. If you advertise something at a particular price you have to then sell it at that price.
It’s not like people tried to buy standing tickets and once they sold out the only ones that were available were stand tickets at €400. They jacked up the price to scalp people. No evidence any tickets were sold at €86.50 either, but don’t let facts get in the way of your opinion.
I don’t know but maybe just maybe more important issues in the country? Lack of school places for children? Scarce student accommodation? High cost of a weekly food shop? Our under strain health service as we face into a winter of flu and covid???
@Mary Kelly: The lads in the Dail bar were raging all week they couldn’t get Oasis tickets, this is how the system works now.
Just another song and dance to distract from the lack of action on important matters. “We wouldn’t want the public paying more than the advertised price for concert tickets, but we’ll let housing get out of control, encourage bidding wars with low stock and drag our feet with homelessness”…
How about you pass the “Occupied Territories Bill” first, people’s lives actually depend on it. Free Palestine
@Gerard O Sullivan: lets do the important things first Gerard.
@Gerard O Sullivan: while were still occupied?
@reg morrisey: Some of us think genocide might just be as important as the price of concert tickets.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: get yourself dictionary and look up sarcasm.dope
Legislation should cover all who use dynamic pricing
Will he do it for hotels as well please .
Superb, so Ryan Air, Centre parcs, every hotel in the country…….
Do this for chicken fillet rolls too
Concerts should be banned
@Fintan Pox: Next ban music like the taliban right?
@Fintan Pox: clown
@Fintan Pox: Especially trad music from those red haired, cabbage eating, Aran sweater wearing, GAA loving, not letting daughter teach yoga, having no foreign friends, no relatives abroad types. Cos they are the absolute worst. Am I right?
@YKwkSIqW: 100%
@Fintan Pox: so should you
Not a hope this will go through. You’d need to do the same for Hotels and Flights. It’s a free market. They might just make them advertise the real price or a real price structure.
Our OAPs are still paying for prescriptions, free before banks bailout.
Paying 40% on income over €18000 / €350 weekly.
Budget coming up ,,, election coming up,
Please Minister reduce tax exemptions, full restore our entitlements.
I wouldn’t cross the road to see oasis.
A max limit should be placed on ticket prices to stop ticketmaster from touting. Free market is dead in terms of event ticketing as they have a monopoly here.
If tickets are advertised at a certain price before a concert/event, it should be illegal to sell the tickets at any other price. When they are sold, they are sold. They should not be grabbed up by bots and resold at three times their face value. This practice could be stopped in a very short time period . But, a capitalist govt isn’t likely to be very interested in fixing this anomaly.
Can we have it for Airline Tickets & anything else where Dynamic Pricing currently exists.
Long gone “first come first served”, just more money…
You better hurry up as you will be gone next election,
Ultimately, this bill will lead to high ticket prices all-round as TM will set at a higher price to offset dynamic pricing, so they can continue rake in profits.
Very easy to control house prices if the lenders only give out the actual original price of house, if people want to get involved in bidding against each other they have to have the extra money themselves, can’t borrow it
Priorities.
“Hey guyz, we know you youngsters can’t afford to buy a pad and are having heavy vibez about the future, bummer. But look what we did for you with those pesky ticket companies!
Next year you Kool Katz will be able to see all ur fave bands – BROS, Curiosity Killed the Cat etc. – and you won’t be ripped off for it! Think of that while sitting in your box bedroom at your Mam and Dad’s house! KOOL DEALZ! Just remember to vote for us in a few months time! FFFG r gnarly!”
Is it going to apply to housing, flights, hotels, oil, gas, olive oil, coffee? These are all things that increase in price as demand goes up and supply goes down
Why is Oasis soup such good value ? You get a roll with it.
@Derick R M: yawnnn
Gym is charging peak and off-peak prices. If that dual pricing is banned it might get more expensive for everyone
The vendors will probably move the sales off shore and side step the rules. People unfortunately don’t have much choice for ticket vendors, so we’re a captive audience. If people refused to pay exorbitant prices it might send the message. It’s probably a better and cheaper option to fly to another city and have the weekend away as a bonus.
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