Desperate Oasis fans in Scotland see re-sale ticket prices soar to £6000 a pair

Daily Record

a day ago

The sold-out Edinburgh Murrayfield show has seen outrageous fees being charged to purchase gold dust tickets on secondary websites.
Desperate Scottish fans who missed out on Oasis tickets last year are now being offered a pair – for £6000.
The outrageous fees are being charged by secondary websites for next month's gigs at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh.
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The Gallagher Brothers got together for the first time since 2009 for the opening night of a 41-gig reunion tour in Cardiff on Friday night.
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There was fury last September when music fans discovered ticket prices increasing while they were hanging on the phone to buy gold dust briefs.
But while millions missed out on the sale, those seeking to profit from the pent-up demand were scooping up tickets by the score.
The website Viagogo has this week been offering seats at the August 8 concert in Edinburgh for £3132 a time. The company admit the face value of the ticket is £462, a mark-up of almost 600 per cent.
The allocated area is Section East 11, Row D in the Zone East Lower Tier at Murrayfield.
Rival firm Vivid Seats is touting a ticket for £2336 for the final Edinburgh concert on Tuesday, August 12.
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It's for Section W19, Row J.
The rip-off prices were condemned by the consumer group, Which? now spearheading a national campaign against the practice.
Lisa Webb, Which? Consumer Law Expert, said: 'Tickets to the Oasis reunion tour in Edinburgh sold out months ago so fans desperate to attend face a lose-lose choice between risking the scammers on social media, paying hundreds more for tickets on secondary sites or missing out on the gigs.
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'The government has promised to introduce stronger consumer protections for ticket purchases. Which? believes ministers must use this opportunity to put a stop to the touts and introduce a price cap to ensure that tickets can only be re-sold on secondary sites at the original price paid – the ticket's face value plus any fees.
'In the meantime, we'd recommend fans only buy tickets through official resale sites - as this eliminates the risk of being scammed and gives them more protections if anything goes wrong.'
The Chartered Trading Standards Institute advised fans who missed out last year to contact their local trading standards department with complaints.
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Those hoping to buy were expecting tickets costing £150 but were shocked to discover prices soaring to £400.
The Institute said fans should have been provided with "all relevant information" before the sale took place.
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Last year, Sylvia Rook, Lead Officer for Fair Trading at the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI), said: 'We are aware of the fact that many consumers have complained that the tickets they were offered, after having queued for several hours online, ended up costing substantially more than the originally advertised prices that were released at the end of last week.
'Whilst dynamic pricing is an accepted practice for holidays, flights and taxis, the difference here is that consumers are informed of the price before they decide to make a purchase. In this case, the public were given a price for tickets, and were not informed until they finally got to the front of the queue, that the price had increased.'
The Competition and Markets Authority has also told Ticketmaster that it is "preparing to litigate" over potential breaches of consumer law.
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Having used regulatory powers 'to obtain evidence from Ticketmaster and others', the CMA found that Ticketmaster sold 'platinum' tickets 'for near 2.5 times the price of equivalent standard tickets' even though they 'did not offer additional benefits and were often located in the same area of the stadium'.
In addition, consumers were not told in advance that there were two categories of standing tickets at different prices, and that after the cheaper standing tickets sold out 'more expensive standing tickets were released'.
As a result of this, the CMA claim many fans waited 'in a lengthy queue without understanding what they would be paying', a situation compounded by the fact that they then had to 'decide whether to pay a higher price than expected'.
Promoters DF Concerts were approached to comment on the £6000 briefs, but failed to respond.