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The UK Competition and Markets Authority has accused Ticketmaster of potentially misleading fans over its sale of tickets for this year’s Oasis reunion tour and said the company has not done enough to change its processes.

In an investigation update on Tuesday, the CMA said it was concerned that Ticketmaster, which last year sold more than 900,000 tickets for the tour, may have breached consumer protection laws by labelling certain tickets as “platinum” when they were no better than standard seats.

The regulator opened its probe into Ticketmaster’s handling of Oasis ticket sales in September, following a public outcry over suspected use of “dynamic pricing” — where prices change in real time based on demand — with fans left paying hundreds of pounds more than expected.

However, its findings may anger fans: the CMA said it had not found evidence that Ticketmaster used an “algorithmic pricing model during the Oasis sale”.

“Instead, Ticketmaster released a number of standing tickets at a lower price and, once they had sold out, then released the remaining standing tickets at a much higher price,” the watchdog said.

The CMA added that it was concerned that “consumers were not given clear and timely information about how the pricing of standing tickets would work, particularly where many customers had to wait in lengthy queues to see what tickets were available”.

It found that certain seats that Ticketmaster described as “platinum” were sold at up to 2.5 times the price of equivalent standard seats, without sufficiently explaining that they did not offer additional benefits and were often in the same area of the stadium.

“We’re concerned that Oasis fans didn’t get the information they needed or may have been misled into buying tickets they thought were better than they were,” said Hayley Fletcher, interim senior director of consumer protection at the CMA.

The watchdog also noted that since it had started its investigation: “Ticketmaster has made changes to some aspects of its ticket sales process, but the CMA does not currently consider these changes are sufficient to address its concerns”.

Fletcher said: “We now expect Ticketmaster to work with us to address these concerns so, in future, fans can make well-informed decisions when buying tickets.”

Ticketmaster said: “We strive to provide the best ticketing platform through a simple, transparent and consumer-friendly experience. We welcome the CMA’s input in helping make the industry even better for fans.”

The company has attracted scrutiny from regulators in the UK and the US. The US Department of Justice has alleged that in combination with its parent company Live Nation — which controls a large number of venues and events, as well as artist management and promotion — the two have potentially used “unlawful, anti-competitive conduct to exercise . . . monopolistic control over the live events industry”. 

Live Nation has denied the allegations.

The UK government has previously criticised the Oasis ticket sales process, with culture secretary Lisa Nandy saying in September that it had been “depressing to see vastly inflated prices excluding ordinary fans from having a chance of enjoying their favourite band”.

More recently, Andrew Parsons, chief executive of Ticketmaster’s UK business, was accused by MPs of “ripping off fans” buying Oasis tickets.

Some in the industry say that dynamic pricing can help stamp out touts by making it more difficult for them to buy in bulk and then resell at inflated prices, and that much of the proceeds go to the artists.