Early bird, tier 1, tier 2: ticket tiers are batches priced in advance, and each opens only when the cheaper one sells out. Oasis' 2024 price jump was that, not dynamic pricing, the UK watchdog found.
Sold out isn't the end. It's the next price.
Facts
- Ticket tiers are batches of the same ticket priced in advance – early bird, tier 1, tier 2, final release. Each higher tier goes on sale only once the cheaper one has sold out, and only the price and the release time differ (the CMA's definition of a fixed tier pricing model, 2025).
- Early birds reward buying early and are capped by number or by date – Eventbrite's examples are the first 50 tickets or the first week of sales. Its organiser guide calls the words “sold out” “like gold for sales”, and its pricing chief says most organisers raise prices three times during an on-sale.
- Oasis' UK and Ireland sale opened on 31 August 2024. Some standing tickets advertised at £135 plus fees were relabelled “in demand” and sold at £355 plus fees (BBC); in Manchester the second price was £337.50 (The Guardian). Ticketmaster sold more than 900,000 tickets.
- The UK Competition and Markets Authority found no evidence of algorithmic, real-time dynamic pricing: some standing tickets were released at a lower price and, once they sold out, the rest at a much higher price. It also questioned ‘platinum’ seats sold at nearly 2.5 times the standard price without explaining they offered no extra benefits – often in the same area of the stadium. Ticketmaster has since stopped using the label in the UK.
- In September 2025 Ticketmaster gave the CMA undertakings, voluntarily and without admitting wrongdoing: 24 hours' notice before a UK sale that uses tiered pricing, price ranges and sell-out updates in online queues, no misleading ticket labels, and reports to the CMA for two years. The CMA made no finding on whether consumer law was broken.
- Dynamic pricing – prices adjusted rapidly and frequently as demand changes – is common in air travel, rail, ride hailing and hotels; the CMA says some live-events businesses are increasingly using it. In November 2025 the UK government ruled out new laws on pricing practices and announced plans to make reselling tickets above face value illegal.
Sources
- CMA: Ticketmaster UK Ltd – undertakings (signed 15 September 2025) · CMA checked 8 October 2026
- CMA: CMA secures changes from Ticketmaster following Oasis tickets investigation (25 September 2025) · CMA checked 8 October 2026
- CMA: CMA seeks changes to the way Ticketmaster labels tickets and provides pricing information to fans (25 March 2025) · CMA checked 8 October 2026
- CMA: CMA launches investigation into Ticketmaster over Oasis concert sales (5 September 2024) · CMA checked 8 October 2026
- CMA: Update – dynamic pricing (dynamic pricing project, 20 June 2025) · CMA checked 8 October 2026
- DBT and DCMS: Government response to the call for evidence on pricing practices in the live events sector (19 November 2025) · UK Government checked 8 October 2026
- DBT and DCMS: Government bans ticket touting to protect fans from rip-off prices (19 November 2025) · UK Government checked 8 October 2026
- BBC News: Oasis sale ‘may have misled fans’ says watchdog (Mark Savage, 25 March 2025) · BBC checked 8 October 2026
- BBC News: UK competition watchdog launches Oasis tickets probe (Helen Bushby, 5 September 2024) · BBC checked 8 October 2026
- The Guardian: A supersonic swindle – my £1,423 Oasis Ticketmaster hell (Josh Halliday, 1 September 2024) · The Guardian checked 8 October 2026
- Eventbrite: 4 ways to make more money with tiered pricing (Katie Sawyer, 27 March 2019) · Eventbrite checked 8 October 2026
- Eventbrite UK: Early bird registration (Leigh Buttrey, 29 July 2024) · Eventbrite checked 8 October 2026
- Eventbrite UK: 3 behavioural science concepts to level up your pricing strategy (Katie McPhee, 5 July 2023) · Eventbrite checked 8 October 2026
Example prices and batch sizes: real tiers vary by event and ticket seller.
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Script
Three ticket tiers. Guess which sold out first. The early bird: cheapest batch, built to go first. Prices are fixed in advance; each tier opens only when the one before sells out. So that “sold out” is a planned step – and those words sell. Oasis, 2024: some standing tickets went from £135 to £355. Fans blamed dynamic pricing: prices moving with demand, in real time. The UK watchdog found no evidence of it: two fixed tiers, and the cheap one sold out first. Now Ticketmaster must flag tiers 24 hours before a UK sale. Sold out isn't the end. It's the next price.
Sources last checked 8 October 2026.