Debate contribution: Dynamic Pricing

Debate contribution by Mr Philip McGuigan on 16 September 2024.

MLA

Mr Philip McGuigan

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

16 September 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Dynamic Pricing

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4532752

Read the official Assembly record

Text

It was an enjoyable debate on a very serious issue, leaving aside all the Members who tried to insert pretty cringey puns. It is, as I said, a serious matter. I scored out aspects of my contribution as they were covered by everybody else. Everybody who spoke got to the heart of the issue in recent weeks: fairness agus

transparency. Is it fair to ask people who hope to go to a concert to see their favourite singer or band to queue online for several hours with no idea what price they may end up being asked to pay for tickets, should they be lucky enough to reach the end of the queue before the tickets sell out? As we found out recently with the Oasis ticket sale, they may be asked to pay a price four times what they initially expected it to be. We all used our own examples in the debate. Two people, sitting beside each other in the same home but using different laptops, could be asked to pay a difference of £300 for the exact same ticket. Is that fair? Given the contributions of all the Members today, clearly, we, in this Chamber, recognise that it is not fair. Everybody touched on the same points, with degrees of variation. Colm Gildernew made a very good point about the contribution of artists and bands to society and the fact that, whatever system is in place, we need to fairly protect them as well as fans. Paul Frew talked, as everybody did, about not being against dynamic pricing per se, but said that, in this instance, there are clearly issues that need to be addressed. As he said, people should feed into the CMA's investigation by Thursday. Sian Mulholland talked about the pricing out of everyday fans, which is a contribution that, by and large, everybody made. She suggested that we need to see a cap on prices and that there is a need for regulation of the secondary market, in particular. I wrote down that she and David Brooks were vying for the worst pun, but then everybody piled in on that. Colin Crawford said that, as well as people feeling ripped off on tickets, as most big concerts require travel to Dublin — given that we do not have a Casement Park in the North — they face the added cost of transport and hotels. He rightly pointed out that it is not only tickets that people feel ripped off on. Many concertgoers already face huge hikes on accommodation, and they feel ripped off on that. He quoted an example of people who, before a concert was announced, had booked hotels for a particular weekend being thrown out of those hotels once the concert was announced, and their hotel rooms then being rebooked at extortionate prices. Matthew O'Toole outlined his experience of trying to get tickets. He rightly touched on the fact that it is ordinary working people who are being faced with extraordinary costs to see their favourite bands and their heroes. He pointed out, as did Sian and others, the impact that that will have on the grassroots music scene if it is not dealt with. Declan McAleer outlined his case and explained the difference between the example of people going to concerts and other examples where dynamic pricing may be of benefit to consumers through lower prices as a result of supply and demand. He also outlined that some of our colleagues in the Dáil have highlighted the issue and that the Oasis example has left a bad feeling among everybody. David Brooks went into a lot of detail on dynamic pricing and, essentially, price gouging. He said that we need to learn from some of the things that are happening in the US so that we do not see them happening here. He said that, because Ticketmaster has a monopoly, eventually only people with deep pockets will be able to buy tickets. Gerry Carroll laboured that point as well. We need to see action from the Government to address that. Kate Nicholl welcomed the wording and tenet of the motion. Thank you very much for that. She pointed to what Declan said about the difference between dynamic pricing for concerts and other examples: it is not the same because when it comes to people who are looking to go to concerts, there is no free choice and no ability to shop around. Sinéad McLaughlin, quite rightly, pointed out that there are other serious and important issues that people will expect the Assembly and MLAs to be talking about. Thank God that we can do two things at once, but this is also a very important issue. She talked about the resale of tickets, which is another thing that needs to be addressed. She felt that there was a role for the Executive there. She talked, rightly, about the importance of concerts, music, culture and arts in what we do here and said that everybody must have access to that. Gerry Carroll spoke very passionately and was scathing of Ticketmaster and its profiteering from fans. He outlined his criticism of the music industry at the top corporate level and pointed out the impact that that is having on working people. I can only speak from my own experience. Up until two months ago, I — I assume like most people — had not heard the phrase "dynamic pricing" in such terms and much less understood its impact on concertgoers. While I accept —.

Yes.

Absolutely. That is a very good point and adds to the point about fairness and transparency. Others have pointed out that dynamic pricing for concerts did not start with the Oasis example, but what happened there brought it to everybody's front and centre view. Most people were shocked by what they saw: all of you in here who tried to get tickets, everybody else who tried to get tickets and people who got to the point where they could buy tickets but found that the ticket price had been grossly inflated. People felt ripped off. When most people began that process, they were unaware of the situation, so there is an issue of transparency in that case. That is being investigated, and we await the outcome, but there is fundamentally an issue about whether dynamic pricing, even with consumer knowledge, is a fair practice for distributing tickets for concerts and events. Given the debate, it is clear that the view of the Assembly is that it is not fair and needs to be dealt with. In closing, I reiterate what most people pointed out. There is an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority into the Ticketmaster scenario, and I urge people to contribute to that.

1,128 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:03 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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