Secondary Ticketing and Dynamic Pricing

Jerome Mayhew, the Member of Parliament for Broadland and Fakenham, asked the Minister for Creative Industries, Arts and Tourism, Chris Bryant, when the government plans to launch a consultation on secondary ticketing and dynamic pricing. In response, the Minister stated that the government wants to put fans at the heart of live events and ensure that more of the revenues go to the creative industries. He announced that the government will be launching a consultation on the secondary ticket market soon, though he was unsure of the exact timing, saying it would be "in the autumn." Mr. Mayhew followed up, acknowledging the need to look at secondary ticketing, but argued that dynamic pricing is a contractual agreement between buyers and sellers based on supply and demand. He suggested that dynamic pricing can lead to cheaper tickets as well as more expensive ones, and questioned whether the government should get involved in this practice, noting the Prime Minister's desire for everyone to be able to afford concert tickets. The Minister acknowledged that dynamic pricing has many different forms, and that some, such as early bird tickets and last-minute theatre tickets, are beneficial to consumers. However, he stated that the government will have a call for evidence on how dynamic pricing works in relation to live events. The Minister highlighted the real scandal as being the resale of tickets at vastly inflated prices, such as the example he provided of Coldplay tickets at Wembley being resold for £17,633, when the face value was only £96.23. He stated that this is the issue the government intends to address.