Ireland’s Competition and Consumer Protection Commission has charged Ticketmaster with two offences under the Consumer Protection Act 2007 over the sale of tickets to the Oasis shows at Croke Park.
The first count alleges Ticketmaster offered “platinum” tickets in a way likely to deceive or mislead the average consumer about the main characteristics of the product. The second concerns the way pricing information was put to buyers, which the CCPC says was likely to cause the average consumer to make a decision they would not otherwise have made.
The two Dublin shows in August drew 80,000 people a night. Standing tickets that started at €176 on presale went past €400 during the on sale. Ticketmaster has accepted that the people who paid the higher prices got nothing extra for their money, and says it will fully test the case.
British regulators looked at the UK leg of the same reunion tour and handled it differently. The Competition and Markets Authority found no evidence that prices were adjusted in real time by an algorithm, but it was concerned that fans queueing were not told standing tickets were selling at two prices, and that platinum tickets were sold at nearly two and a half times the standard price without a proper explanation of what buyers were getting. That investigation finished with undertakings, including a commitment to tell fans 24 hours ahead when tiered pricing is in use.
Ireland has gone further, putting the matter in front of a court rather than settling for commitments about how prices get displayed in future.
The ACCC’s unfair trading practices process is the closest Australian equivalent, and the platinum ticket question sits squarely inside it. Anyone selling tiered inventory here should be watching what the Irish court makes of “main characteristics of that product”.
