Ticketmaster is a rip off, and everybody knows it
Nobody should be surprised at the latest hullabaloo over Ticketmaster. Its abusive practices have even attracted the attention of the US authorities: in May, the Department of Justice brought an anti-trust lawsuit against it its parent company, Live Nation, which manages practically all musical events in the country. And once again, fans are paying the price.
The company is in the headlines for all the wrong reasons due to its handling of the much-vaunted Oasis reunion tour of the UK and Ireland in July and August 2025. Ticketmaster has taken advantage of the huge demand by using a so-called dynamic pricing system in combination with thousands of bots programmed to buy tickets that has pushed prices up to astronomical levels, leaving fans feeling ripped off.
Dynamic pricing systems are widely used by online platforms, notably for ride hailing. However, forcing music fans to also compete with a pack of bots to to further increase demand is clearly abusive.
The outrage in the British media over Ticketmaster’s practices has prompted the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to investigate the company for abusive practices, which may (hopefully) result in big fines or other sanctions to the company. Instead, what is needed is a complete overhaul of how it operates. Essentially, the platform is a ticket…
