Nobody ever found the algorithm.
Cast your mind back to last August. Oasis announce their reunion (fifteen years after the Gallagher brothers split backstage at Rock en Seine — yes, my favourite Paris festival), and seventeen UK and Ireland dates sell out. Fans queue online for hours. And at the front of the queue, a nasty surprise: as The Conversation reported, many who had expected to pay around £135 found the price had shot up to more than £350, because tickets were "in demand". Uproar. Everyone blames "dynamic pricing" — the price that climbs in real time with demand, like a plane ticket in August.
Except it wasn't that. On 25 March 2025, the Competition and Markets Authority published an update on its investigation into Ticketmaster's Oasis sale, in which Ticketmaster sold more than 900,000 tickets. The CMA found no evidence that prices had been adjusted in real time by an algorithm. What happened was far more mundane. There were two categories of standing tickets at two very different prices — and nobody said so. The cheaper ones went first. Then the pricier ones took over. Fans queued without knowing what they'd pay (and had to decide on the spot).
See where I'm going with this? That day, it wasn't bad luck that cost the fans who came after the switch an extra £200 or so. It was the mechanics of the sale. And mechanics can be understood — which means, to a point, they can be beaten.
The other mechanic is fraud. Which? noted, as the Oasis sale approached, that Action Fraud had received more than 10,000 reports of ticket fraud in the previous 13 months, with £9.8m lost. That money didn't vanish into an algorithm. It went to fraudsters.
I've done thirty-odd festivals and more gigs than I've bothered to count (spoiler: that's a lot of queues). My round-up of the must-attend music festivals this summer tells you where to go. This one is about how to buy — presales, the online queue, official resale, the law. The goal: pay face value for your ticket. Not a penny more, and definitely not to a fake Instagram account.
Face value: the only number that matters
Face value is the price set for a ticket category and printed on the ticket. The law defines it exactly that way — section 90 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 calls it "the amount stated on the ticket as its price". Everything else is measured against it. A resale at face value is fair; a resale at three times face value isn't. Simple as that.
One detail catches people out — the price you see isn't always the price you pay. Citizens Advice suggests checking for any additional costs before you buy (booking, handling or transaction fees, or delivery charges). The headline price only tells you half the story.
In practice, keep three numbers in your head for every gig you're after: the face value of your category, the fees, and the total. If someone offers you a "£90 ticket" with a £55 face value, you know exactly how much they're pocketing. And you know who's doing the pocketing — someone who produced nothing and organised nothing.
One last thing: face value doesn't mean cheap. A top-category seat in a stadium is still expensive (very expensive). The point isn't to pretend otherwise — it's to stop paying a middleman on top.
Before tickets go on sale: find the official sellers (and only them)
Every gig has a handful of official sellers, and they're listed somewhere — on the artist's, the venue's or the festival's website. For Oasis, Which? spelled it out: Ticketmaster, Gigs and Tours and See Tickets for the UK dates. Anyone else? Not official.
Citizens Advice gives the same rule, plus a useful extra. Once you've found the official sellers, check they're members of STAR (the Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers). And walk away from any site offering tickets that aren't officially on sale yet, any seller who'd be hard to contact (a PO box and a mobile number, say), or any page without "https" in the address.
Do this homework before the sale — not during it. On the day, you're stressed, you type the tour name into a search engine… and Citizens Advice warns that resale sites often show up before the official ones. Honestly, the best reflex is also the most boring: type the official seller's address yourself, or use their app.
While you're at it, create an account with each official seller, with a valid payment method saved and your email and billing details up to date — Ticketmaster recommends exactly that in its help page on the queue. Check your card's expiry date too: on the day, you don't want to be digging for your card at the bottom of your bag.
Presales: the real way in
For a big gig, the general sale often arrives after the battle's been fought. Part of the tickets often goes in presales — early access for a specific group of people, before everyone else.
The most common presales, roughly:
- The artist's. Mailing list, fan club or official sign-up, often with a link or code sent by email.
- The venue's or promoter's. For people signed up to their newsletter.
- Your mobile network's. O2 Priority, for instance, lets O2 customers buy tickets up to 48 hours before general release for plenty of gigs.
- Your credit card's. Some card providers run their own presales — Citizens Advice lists fan clubs, mobile phone and credit card companies among the routes to check.
The rule: sign up for everything free, the moment a tour is announced. Yes, your inbox will overflow for three weeks (make a dedicated folder, it changes your life). A presale guarantees nothing (tickets are limited there too). But it multiplies your chances.
Some presales come with extra rules. For Oasis, there was a presale ballot — you registered, answered a general knowledge question about the band, and a limit of four tickets per household applied. Read those rules before the day, not in the queue.
Two traps, though. First: the "paid" presale, where you hand over money just for the right to try. Be especially wary of ones that arrive by unsolicited message or through a social media ad; real presales are announced on the artist's official channels. Second, and sneakier: some artists and events don't allow resale at all. Citizens Advice suggests checking this on their websites before you buy — if you're buying a spare "just in case", make sure you'll be able to pass it on properly.
The online queue: the rules for keeping your place
For high-demand sales (stadiums, big reunions, headline festivals), the major ticket sellers put everyone through an online queue. According to Ticketmaster's help page on its queue, it also uses security measures to detect bots and monitor traffic. Tickets go first come, first served — and nothing is guaranteed. The queue can't be skipped either, although Ticketmaster says it sometimes offers fan club boosts for certain events.
The ticket seller's own instructions:
- Arrive early, but not too early. Ticketmaster recommends joining the waiting room 15 minutes before tickets go on sale. You're given your place in line when the sale officially begins — so turning up two hours early won't put you at the front.
- Don't refresh. Your spot refreshes automatically. Refreshing, closing or leaving the page puts your position at risk.
- Keep your screen on. On a phone, don't let the screen dim, or your waiting room will pause.
- Turn the volume up. A bell tells you when it's your turn (even if you've stepped away for two minutes).
- Be ready to pay. When it's your turn, your spot is held for 10 minutes. Ten minutes to choose, confirm and pay — that's not long when you're torn between two categories.
I speak from experience. A few years ago, I refreshed a queue page on pure reflex (the progress bar had stopped moving, I panicked). I ended up behind a crowd of people who'd kept their cool. These days I put my phone down flat, screen on — and don't touch a thing.
What about ten tabs open, three phones borrowed from your flatmates? Let's be honest: on a single account, I don't. The system is built to spot bots, and I have no desire to look like one two clicks away from my ticket. Better to have friends who each try their luck (on their own accounts) — and a rule that whoever gets through first buys for the group.
Price tiers, "platinum" and prices that jump: read the screen before you pay
This is the Oasis lesson, and it applies to any gig. The same show is sold in several categories (standing, seated, different blocks…). And a single category can be split into tranches, released one after another. When the first runs out, the next one arrives — pricier. You didn't miss an algorithm. You missed a tranche.
The CMA flagged another trap — seated tickets labelled "platinum" and sold for nearly 2.5 times the price of equivalent standard tickets. No extra benefits, and often in the same area of the stadium. The word sounds premium; the seat is the same. If a "premium" ticket doesn't spell out what you get on top (access, a gift, a better view), assume you get nothing.
Real dynamic pricing does exist. When the government announced its plan to tackle ticket touts in January 2025, it also launched a call for evidence on pricing practices, describing dynamic pricing as something that "adjusts ticket prices based on demand, time, and availability". Tranches or algorithm, your defence is the same.
Official resale: your plan B at face value
Missed out? Don't panic — and above all, don't rush. Tickets almost always come back (people fall ill, change plans, break up). The right place to find them is official resale.
For Oasis, Which? pointed fans to Twickets and Ticketmaster's Fan-to-Fan exchange, where resales were allowed at no more than the price originally paid — face value plus booking fees. Citizens Advice says the same about fan-to-fan sites in general: tickets should be at face value or less. Some artists and events recommend or link to these sites for their own shows.
If you can't go, selling this way is painless too. I did it once, when a work trip landed right on the date of a gig. Listed on the Monday, sold on the Wednesday — without exchanging a single message with a stranger.
For other events, look on the artist's or festival's website for the name of the official resale partner. Nothing there? Ask the organiser on their official social channels.
Reselling a gig ticket: what UK law actually says
Unlike France, where habitually reselling tickets without the organiser's permission is a criminal offence, the UK currently has no legal cap on resale prices. Which? notes that most resale sites aren't affiliated with artists and let resellers charge whatever they want. According to the CMA's analysis quoted by the government, typical mark-ups on the secondary market are more than 50 per cent, and Trading Standards investigations have found tickets resold for up to six times their original cost.
That's precisely what the government's consultation, launched on 10 January 2025, is about. It sought views on a resale price cap somewhere between the original price and a 30 per cent uplift, and on limiting how many tickets resellers can list. As I write, no final decision has been announced.
What the law already does:
- Information. Under section 90 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, anyone reselling through a secondary site must tell you the seat or standing area, any restriction on who can use the ticket, and its face value.
- Bots. Using software to buy more tickets than the sales limit, with a view to making money, has been a criminal offence in England, Wales and Scotland since 2018.
- Football. Citizens Advice points out that certain football match tickets can't be resold unless the match organiser has authorised it.
- Fines. Trading Standards can already fine up to £5,000 for ticketing rule breaches, according to the government.
And then there's the event's own terms. For Oasis, the organisers said that buying or selling through unauthorised resale platforms broke their terms and conditions — meaning you could be turned away at the door. My view: never resell above face value. You keep things clean, you don't feed the touts, and you avoid haggling with a stranger who wants your ticket but not its price.
Fake tickets, fake sellers: the scams doing the rounds
Taylor Swift fans alone lost more than £1m to ticket scammers ahead of The Eras Tour, according to Lloyds Bank figures quoted by Which? — and the pattern rarely changes: a sold-out gig, a desperate fan, a stranger with a spare ticket on social media.
The red flags Which? lists are the ones I'd put on a poster:
- A brand-new profile that follows no one and has no followers — possibly opened just to scam ticket hunters.
- A profile picture that's been lifted. A reverse image search shows where it really comes from.
- A website created last week. You can check a site's creation date with who.is.
- A price too good to be true for a sold-out gig (or too steep, which isn't better).
- A request for a bank transfer — or Bitcoin.
On your side, one reflex saves a lot of grief: never post a photo of your ticket online. A visible barcode or QR code can be copied (and sold to several people at once).
Paying for gig tickets safely: credit card, PayPal, bank transfer
With an official seller, it's simple: pay by card on a secure page. Citizens Advice adds that if you pay by card and there's a problem (fake tickets, say), your bank will usually help you get your money back. It's between private individuals that things get messy.
Credit cards come with an extra layer. Under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, your card provider can be liable along with the seller — but, as Which?'s guide to Section 75 explains, the item has to cost between £100 and £30,000. And concert tickets are the classic grey area: buy direct from the venue and Section 75 may apply; buy through a ticket agency and it may not. For a debit card, or smaller amounts, the route is a chargeback through your bank.
The PayPal trap deserves its own paragraph. PayPal offers two ways to pay: "Friends and Family", meant for a gift or a split bill, and "Goods and Services", which comes with Buyer Protection. On its page on these scams, PayPal is blunt: "If a seller is encouraging you to send a 'Friends and Family' payment when you're buying a good or service, you should refuse." A seller who insists is telling you one thing — they don't want you to be able to come after them.
A bank transfer is the scammer's favourite. Which? and Citizens Advice both warn against paying that way. As for touts outside the venue, Citizens Advice is clear — the tickets might be fake.
My order of preference, safest first? The official seller. Then official resale for the event. Then a ticket transfer between two accounts with the official seller, with someone you actually know. Below that, frankly, I'll sit it out.
Cancelled gigs, change of plans, turned away at the door: your options
A gig ticket can't simply be cancelled — and plenty of people learn that too late. The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 exclude "services related to leisure activities, if the contract provides for a specific date" from the usual cancellation rights (regulation 28). Bought on a whim? It's yours.
Gig cancelled or postponed? If you bought from an official seller, you get a refund under the rules of STAR, Which? explains. Those rules don't apply to secondary sites like StubHub or Viagogo. And even with a primary seller, you're unlikely to claim back extras such as pre-booked travel or a hotel. Bought from a private seller? Your only contact is them.
Been scammed? Don't sit alone with the embarrassment. You didn't do anything stupid; these scams target people who are in a hurry and in love with a band, which is everyone. Keep screenshots of the listing, the messages and the payment (before the account vanishes). Call your bank straight away, using the number on the back of your card, and report the scam to Action Fraud (or Police Scotland on 101). A seller who gave you wrong or misleading information can be reported to Trading Standards, says Citizens Advice.
My seven-step method for paying face value
If you only remember one thing — make it this list. It's the one I follow for every gig that matters, from announcement to the night itself.
- On announcement day, screenshot the official price list. Note the official sellers and, if there is one, the official resale partner.
- Straight after, sign up for every free presale (artist, venue, network, card). Put each date in your calendar, with an alarm.
- The day before, check your accounts: logins, email, phone, a saved card that hasn't expired.
- On the day, join the waiting room in the quarter of an hour before the sale. Screen on, volume up, no refreshing.
- When it's your turn, read the category, the location and the total price, fees included. Stick to your ceiling.
- If you miss out, watch official resale right up to the gig. Ignore every DM offering you "a spare".
- If you can't go, resell through official resale — or, failing that, to someone you know, at face value and never above.
And if the gig slips away anyway? It happens — and it's not the end of the world. There'll be other dates, and in the meantime other ways to go out (I've gathered twenty original weekend ideas beyond dinner and a film).
Next time a tour is announced, try this: open the artist's website before you open Instagram.
Frequently asked questions
Is it legal to resell a gig ticket in the UK?
Generally, yes — there's currently no legal cap on resale prices, which is what the government's January 2025 consultation looked at. But resellers on secondary sites must show the seat or area, any restrictions and the face value (Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 90). Some football tickets can't be resold without the organiser's authorisation, and an event's own terms may ban resale.
Can I be turned away with a resale ticket?
Yes. Citizens Advice warns you might be refused entry if you're not the person named on the ticket, or if the organiser cancels resold tickets. For Oasis, the organisers said tickets bought through unauthorised resale platforms broke their terms, so holders could be turned away.
Does opening several tabs in the queue improve my chances?
Not according to the ticket seller's own advice. Ticketmaster gives you your place when the sale officially begins, and its queue is designed to detect bots. You're better off with several friends on their own accounts than one person with ten tabs.
Was the Oasis sale really dynamic pricing?
The CMA found no evidence of prices adjusted in real time by an algorithm. Ticketmaster released a batch of standing tickets at a lower price and, once they sold out, released the rest at a much higher price — without clearly telling fans how it would work.
Does Section 75 cover gig tickets?
Sometimes. The purchase must cost between £100 and £30,000 and be paid at least partly by credit card. Which? explains that buying direct from the venue may qualify, while buying through a ticket agency may not. Otherwise, ask your bank about a chargeback.
I've paid for a fake ticket: what now?
Gather the evidence (listing, messages, payment), call your bank straight away using the number on the back of your card, and report the scam to Action Fraud — or to Police Scotland on 101 if you're in Scotland.
Can I cancel a gig ticket I've just bought?
Usually not. The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 exclude services related to leisure activities with a specific date from cancellation rights. That's why it pays to check your plans, and the terms, before you click "buy".
Sources
- Competition and Markets Authority — CMA seeks changes to the way Ticketmaster labels tickets and provides pricing information to fans (25 March 2025)
- GOV.UK — Plan to tackle greedy ticket touts and give power back to fans (10 January 2025)
- Which? — Oasis reunion tour: how to buy tickets, avoid scams and get a refund if the gig's cancelled (28 August 2024)
- Citizens Advice — Buying event tickets safely online
- legislation.gov.uk — Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 90
- legislation.gov.uk — The Breaching of Limits on Ticket Sales Regulations 2018
- Which? — Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act
- legislation.gov.uk — Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 28
- The Conversation — Oasis tickets: how dynamic pricing works, and how touts may have driven up prices (4 September 2024)