MP urges cooling-off period for music fans to reflect on ‘potentially rash’ buys

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Music fans who purchase tickets under “dynamic pricing” should have a 14-day cooling-off period to reflect on “potentially rash financial decisions”, MPs have heard.

Labour’s Jo White put forward the suggestion for protections in law after concerns were raised about the cost of tickets for the Oasis reunion tour.

Surge pricing based on demand is set to be examined by the Government, the UK’s competition watchdog and the European Commission amid a backlash to Oasis concert prices soaring because of the practice.

Ms White highlighted how one of her Bassetlaw constituents spent hours queuing to buy tickets, explaining: “He got two at the hyper-inflated price of £800 that were originally on sale for £150 each.

“Lengthy queuing puts people under significant pressure to purchase tickets and potentially rash financial decisions that they may later regret.

“The insurance industry is required to provide a 14-day cool-off period to give space for reflection.

“Will the minister give consideration to widening the forthcoming Consumer Protection Bill to include such a clause on dynamic pricing ticket sales?”

Commons Leader Lucy Powell replied: “I know she speaks for many millions, myself included, who had that shared experience over the weekend of spending hours in a queue, a very British thing that we like to do, to then find the tickets that we were able to get were at a hugely inflated price.

“I am pleased to see that Oasis have now announced further dates and there’ll be a non-queuing system and a fixed price for those tickets.

“But she is absolutely right, this Government is committed to putting fans back at the heart of music and that’s why we will be having a consultation on secondary ticket pricing and ticket touts this autumn and the Culture Secretary (Lisa Nandy) has made clear that as part of that consultation, we will look at the issues of technology around queuing systems and also the dynamic ticket pricing that she talks about.”