Ticketmaster Troubles: Algorithms, Resellers, and the Trust Crisis

By Jojo Thelu

We have all been through it by now: biding time in a Ticketmaster waiting room with hopes of being one of the lucky few who manages to score the precious tickets to see your favourite artist live; then having these hopes crushed once your place in the queue is revealed to be in the tens and hundreds of thousands. Ticketmaster is the biggest online ticket-selling platform, however, the flaws and outrage towards its system are coming to light – especially after the Oasis catastrophe.

Pricing Algorithms

Ticketmaster began employing a dynamic pricing algorithm in 2022, which allows for price adjustments based on real-time fluctuations in demand. While Ticketmaster claims this allows for fairer ticket access by limiting access from bots and ticket touts, many consider it the opposite of fair.

Before digital ticket-selling platforms, society had what can only be described as an almost anarchistic belief in queuing as the fairest way to allocate resources. Everyone would have an equal chance, and fairness is ensured by following the mantra of ‘first come, first served’. This idea that queuing is fair is deeply rooted in societal norms, and the general lack of a central authority needed to enforce it demonstrates this: we trust that if we wait our turn and others do not try to cheat the system (by queue-jumping), we have a fair process of allocation, including that of tickets. Ticketmaster has shifted the idea of fairness to the neo-liberal approach of dynamic pricing, which considers ‘whoever can most afford it’ to be the new fair.

Relying on an algorithm to determine a ‘fair’ price, is arguably a dangerous approach. Capitalist creators deploy dynamic pricing to maximise profit, not to support our traditional notion of fairness. Machines do not have human intuition as a tool to measure what is fair, the algorithm process is often opaque and not available to the public, and the results of deploying them always leave the public feeling defeated and frustrated. It must be considered if this ticket-selling approach aligns with our societal values, and if it is possible to change it to do so. After all, algorithms will only be as fair as their creators (capitalists) desire.

Resellers

As well as allegedly making the process more ‘fair’, Ticketmaster emphasised that dynamic pricing would hopefully decrease the amount of ticket touts buying considerable amounts of tickets and reselling them at an extortionate price, as well as ensuring all the money could remain in-house and go to the artists themselves. 

However, many fans expressed frustration that bots secured tickets over legitimate fans and proceeded to resell them for, in some cases, thousands of pounds. While Ticketmaster claimed to have limited the pre-sale to genuine Oasis fans by requiring hopeful ticket-buyers to answer a question, this barrier was easily bypassed with thousands of fans flocking to Google for the answer. 

The efficiency of preventing resellers is a crucial element to Ticketmaster’s reputation. It is a common occurrence creating further opportunities for fans to be scammed by ‘fake’ ticket sellers who demand high prices but never follow through on providing the golden tickets. The increasing fraud associations further damaged Ticketmaster’s already tarnished reputation and decreased the public’s trust in the platform.

Legal Restrictions

It is no surprise, that Ticketmaster is under investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) after such an epic disaster from the Oasis sale. While dynamic pricing is not illegal, the lack of transparency around Ticketmaster’s use of this algorithm may have potentially violated UK Consumer laws. While it is often a band or singer’s decision to implement this algorithm, Ticketmaster must inform customers. Furthermore, their frequent hidden fees that further bolster ticket prices are another basis for the concerns surrounding the investigation and continue to leave the public feeling deceived by the platform and its controversial pricing strategy.

There are hopes that the investigation will prompt the government to hold the platform accountable and prevent such gruelling sales from occurring again. However, until this is achieved, Ticketmaster continues to hold control over ticket sales and pricing. The longer this market goes unchecked, the more public frustration and distrust grows. The Oasis blunder is more than a few frustrated fans bitter they did not get a ticket. It is a glimpse into what the future holds as society moves closer towards a digitalised world, and how our ‘human’ definition of fairness may diminish in digital implementations.