Oasis fans who shelled out huge sums for resale tickets are facing more woe – they won’t get into the gigs.
Concert promoters have promised a clampdown on touts cashing in on the massive demand for the 2025 reunion tour. Desperate punters have forked out thousands to see their idols – but have been warned resold tickets are worthless.
It’s a fresh blow for music-lovers after the promoters’ use of “dynamic pricing” on Ticketmaster had already caused controversy. Ticket prices surged quickly as thousands swamped the website to try and snap up a ticket to see their heroes.
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That in itself sparked fury as well as a probe by the competition watchdog. But since then greedy touts have been listing tickets on secondary sales sites for thousands of pounds, in breach of promoter rules.
Ticketing expert Reg Walker said: “What normally happens is that ticket companies have specialist fraud-prevention software in place to identify criminality. And they also have software to identify the digital fingerprint that bots and the aggressive software used by touts leaves behind.”
The one piece of good news is that the move will mean that some fans who missed out when tickets went on sale in August will have a second chance to buy. In the coming weeks, the ticketing companies will identify the resold tickets, cancel them, and put them back on sale.
Live Nation, the US giant that owns Ticketmaster, and SJM Concerts, the tour promoters, said: “Ticket agents Ticketmaster and See Tickets will start the process of cancelling tickets that are believed to have broken the terms and conditions for the tour in the coming weeks.
“These were put in place to take action against secondary ticketing companies reselling tickets for huge profit.”
Live Nation and SJM said that this had meant that only 4 per cent of Oasis tickets had gone resale sites, whereas for some big tours up to 20 per cent of tickets had appeared on “unauthorised secondary platforms”.
Oasis have already sold out 19 stadium shows across the UK and Ireland next summer. Tickets for their recently-announced North American tour has also sold out.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk