Abstract On 31 August 2024, tickets for the Oasis reunion tour went on sale. The outcome was predictable. Prospective purchasers waited online for hours to buy tickets, many were disappointed. Tickets soon appeared on secondary sites at prices which greatly exceeded originally advertised prices. The resulting outcries fed into the new Government’s manifesto promise to ‘put fans back at the heart of events by introducing new consumer protections on ticket resales’. The best solutions to address the popular concerns are: (1) to improve the allocation of tickets in the primary market; and (2) add a greater degree of consumer protection to reduce information asymmetry in the primary market. The former reform requires no regulatory intervention. As a second-best solution I suggest rethinking regulation of the secondary market, as most of the current and proposed regulatory efforts in this market are either unworkable or exacerbate fan frustration. Regulatory interventions on basis of ‘fairness’ or ‘putting fans first’ exacerbate these market failures. The source of the problem is market failure in the primary market, and it is towards this that regulatory effort should be directed. Intervention in the form of secondary market price caps will undermine efforts to protect fans.
Bruce Wardhaugh (Mon,) studied this question.
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