Why are more than 50,000 Oasis tickets going to be cancelled?

When tickets went on sale for the UK and Ireland leg of the 2025 Oasis tour on 31 August, fans were told they could only purchase them through Ticketmaster or its resale partner, Twickets.

Around 1.4 million tickets went on sale for the European dates. All of the then-17 shows sold out by the end of the day.

The decision to limit the sale of tickets to the two official sites was to stop touts buying tickets in bulk and selling them on for highly inflated prices.

Ticketmaster parent company LiveNation has since confirmed that it will now start the process of cancelling over 50,000 tickets that have been sold on secondary ticket buying sites.

“These terms and conditions were successfully put in place to take action against secondary ticketing companies reselling tickets for huge profit. Only 4% of tickets have ended up on resale sites,” a LiveNation spokesperson said, noting that by comparison some major tours “can see up to 20% of tickets appearing via the major unauthorised secondary platforms.”

Secondary ticket swap sites such as Viagogo, TicketSwap and (the Oasis-approved) Twickets have become a widespread part of the live event market in recent years.

Ostensibly intended as a means for gig-goers to sell on tickets to other fans when they can’t attend due to unforeseen circumstances, these secondary sites are regularly filled with tickets for popular events snapped up by touts being advertised for significantly above the original asking price.

According to the BBC, some of the tickets listed on these secondary sites for the upcoming Oasis tour were being sold for as much as £119,000 (€143,000). A quick check through StubHub and Viagogo found multiple examples of tickets being sold for thousands of Euros.

“Two percent of Oasis tickets are on Viagogo and Stubhub,” Matt Drew, a Viagogo executive, told the BBC. “We will continue to sell them in the way the regulator says we can. We are serving a clear consumer need, we will continue doing it on that basis.”

The original ticket sale date wasn’t without controversy as Oasis, Ticketmaster and LiveNation were accused of price gouging by not adequately warning fans that the concerts were subject to dynamic pricing.

For many expectant fans, they were surprised to find that the standing tickets, advertised for £135 (€160) were subject to dynamic pricing. At its peak, standing tickets rose to £355 (€421) by the time fans reached the checkout.

Both the Competition and Markets Authority, the UK’s competition regulator, and Ireland’s Competition and Consumer Protection Commission have opened investigations into the way Oasis used dynamic pricing.

Dynamic pricing is legal under the EU’s consumer protection law. It’s used frequently in industries like airline tickets and taxis.

However, the EU Commission does have some restrictions on dynamic pricing. It would be illegal “if prices are raised during the booking process after the consumer has proceeded to payment” a letter from the Commission in 2023 confirmed.