Ticket Price Regulation: Live Events

Debate between Jeff Smith and Rupa Huq

Wednesday 9th September 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dr Huq]

I certainly agree with that, and one of the provisions in my excellent Bill is on transparency. People should know what they are getting into.

Touting does not just apply to music. Football, theatre, and all sorts of other things are becoming subject to these processes. In July, Which? found that tickets for Lewis Capaldi’s current run at the O2 in London were on resale sites for £1,400, when they were originally priced between £32 and £111. A ticket for the All Points East festival with Raye was even on sale for £114,666 on viagogo—the original price was only meant to be £80.

We are used to such surge, gouge and dynamic pricing—where there is variability and prices fluctuate—with planes, trains, Uber and Amazon, but it is creeping into all our lives. It is made easier with data mining, because that algorithmic calculation can factor in demand, willingness to pay and availability. Oasis clam that it was not surge pricing with them, but tiered pricing: there were different levels of ticket, which is why, by the time people were at the front of the queue, the £100 tickets had gone, and the tickets remaining cost £300. The array of different ticket types—premium; standing—can be a bit confusing.

[Jeff Smith (Manchester Withington) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is making a typically entertaining and informative speech. I wonder whether she would agree that, from the customer’s point of view, there does not appear to be that much difference between tiered pricing and dynamic pricing—it is just that when the cheap seats have gone, they have to pay the premium. There is something unedifying, at best, about the whole concept of tiered pricing. Is that something that she thinks the Government should be looking at when they bring forward the Bill?

[Dr Huq]

If there were transparency—if people were getting a sort of fan package and their dinner was involved as well, and there were other extras on top—we could perhaps understand why, but this mysterious tiered pricing, when there is no difference between the two, other than one is called premium and one is not, is quite baffling. My Bill would ensure real-time information on the ticketing site all the way through the process, setting out the amount of tickets at each price, so that fans do not get a nasty surprise when they get to the front of the queue.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeff Smith and Rupa Huq

Thursday 13th July 2023 Commons Chamber

[Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)]

7. What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of ticket office closures on rail users.

[Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)]

9. What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of ticket office closures on rail users.