Money blog: Ticketmaster investigated after Oasis ticket sale - with fans asked for screenshots (2024)

Amazon has launched its AI-powered shopping assistant in the UK - after rolling out the feature in the US earlier this year.

Chatbot Rufus has knowledge of Amazon's product catalogue and some other information from across the web and is being deployed to answer shoppers' queries.

It will be available only to a small percentage of UK users, before being rolled out to a wider base at an unspecified later date.

Fast fashion giant Primark is launching a "swap shop" for customers to exchange used and vintage clothing in its stores.

It has teamed up with circular clothing company Verte to put on a limited run of the pop-ups this month.

Customers will be able to bring up to five items of adult clothing, bags, hats or scarves in good condition - which can then be swapped for digital tokens on the Verte app.

Those tokens can then be redeemed against other pre-used clothing.

The pop-ups will only run in select stores in London, Manchester and Birmingham.

Royal Mail may not be obligated to deliver second class letters on a Saturday in future, under plans being considered by the industry regulator.

Ofcom, which launched a consultation on the company's universal service obligation (USO) earlier this year, said such a shift would protect priority deliveries, including first class mail, and help loss-making Royal Mail save cash.

Read more here...

Millions of women working in the private sector are missing out on enhanced maternity pay compared with their peers in the public sector, according to new research.

A survey by HR data provider Brightmine found the vast majority (97%) of public sector firms offer enhanced pay, compared with 75% in the private sector.

Around 2.7 million female private sector workers are missing out on enhanced maternity pay, compared with just 149,400 in the public sector.

However, Brightmine said there were some positives, with the number of organisations offering a boosted pay package increasing by 10% in three years and more employers offering it as a day one entitlement.

The proportion of firms requiring a year of service has fallen from 37% in 2021 to 32%, it said.

Bar Huberman, Brightmine content manager for HR strategy and practice, said: "Some mothers decide to return to work much earlier than they would have liked after having a baby due to very little pay during maternity leave, which can take a toll on their health."

Firms going "above and beyond" the minimum requirement were likely to see better staff loyalty and engagement, she added.

By Ollie Cooper, Money team

Since announcing their monumental UK tour, Oasis have repeatedly warned fans against buying resold tickets from second-hand selling websites such as Viagogo - and going as far as saying the tickets would be cancelled.

But with hundreds of listings already sold on to concertgoers, can the band actually cancel the tickets - practically and legally?

It's a question we've asked the band's management, Ignition Management and Ticketmaster, one of the major sites that sold the tickets.

We received no response.

So we went to industry and legal experts to find out if they can make good on their threat.

Can the band track down second-hand tickets?

Customers who bought from Ticketmaster (who could have subsequently gone on to relist them elsewhere) were not required to supply any photo ID or anything outside basic personal details.

As a result, virtually everyone we spoke to suggested it would be difficult to identify, track down and cancel tickets that have been sold second-hand.

Joel Crouch, chief revenue officer at Fixr, the ticketing and event platform, said: "I don't see an obvious way to do that."

Once touts have bought and listed tickets for resale, he said, there's very little that can be done.

Some artists build resale clauses into contracts with promoters and ticket sites, meaning "we can send cease and desist letters to the platforms", but generally, "there are loopholes all over the shop" which allow the tickets to be moved on again.

"The secondary market becomes a dark art very quickly," he added.

'It's too late'

Benjamin Barrier, co-founder and chief strategy officer at DataDome, echoed the challenges promoters face.

"Career fraudsters will have advanced techniques to hide their identity," he said.

"They're likely to have rented a high quality residential IP address to avoid IP tracking, and they might also have created fraudulent accounts to hide their identity, or used several illegitimate accounts at one time."

These techniques make touts "virtually untraceable", Benjamin added, "so the only way of stopping them is by spotting them before they manage to get their hands on tickets".

"It's now too late to claw back these tickets - and promoters will struggle to make good on their threat."

What's the legal standpoint?

Whether the tickets can be cancelled if they're traced comes down to the T&Cs - somewhat predictably.

"Like members clubs and gyms, and provided their terms make it clear prior to sale, ticket sellers are allowed to provide goods and services to named buyers only - and they can lawfully cancel the contract if someone else subsequently tries to use the tickets,"Prateek Swaika, partner at Boies Schiller, said.

In theory, "this also protects consumers from ticket touts and ensures that the majority of the purchase price paid goes to the artists and authorised agents rather than to scalpers".

However, as Benjamin from DataDome points out, it's only "likely to hit the legitimate fans who have paid thousands for second-hand tickets harder than the scammers themselves" - as they'll already have made their money.

What does Viagogo say?

Cris Miller, global managing director at Viagogo, says: "Every order on our platform is protected by our Viagogo guarantee.

"Any attempt to cancel tickets by the original sellers would be unfair to the fans who elected to shop on secure, transparent, and highly regulated resale marketplaces. This would be a clear example of anti-consumer and retaliatory behaviour and reinforces our longstanding concerns about competition in the primary market and the detrimental impact this has on British fans. The consequences of this market dominance have been seen over the past week.

"We welcome the CMA's announcement that it will investigate these practices and we continue to support industry collaboration to create a wider competitive market to the benefit of British consumers.

"Ultimately, we recognise that a comprehensive review of the entire ticketing industry is the best path forward to create meaningful change and prioritise fans."

By James Sillars, business reporter

There is a record number of former rental homes now on the sales market, according to a property portal which believes there is a link to Labour's looming first budget.

Rightmove called for "incentives" to support the private rental sector while reporting a leap in the pace of landlords selling up, some "potentially driven by the mooted increase in capital gains tax".

Changes are widely tipped to be announced on 30 October as the new Labour government moves to fill what it says is a £22bn black hole in the public finances inherited from the Conservatives.

Rightmove said its marker data this week showed that18% of properties now for sale were previously on the rental market, compared with a five-year average of 14%.

It reported that the figure was highest in London at 29%, followed byScotland (19%) and the North East (19%).

Tim Bannister, Rightmove's property expert, said: "Inrecent years it has become more attractive for some landlords to leave the rental sector rather than to continue to invest in it, due to rising costs, taxes, and legislation.

"A healthy private rented sector needs landlord investment to provide tenants with a good choice of homes.

"We've seen over the last few years how the supply and demand imbalance can contribute to rising rents, so there is a worry that without encouragement for landlords to stay in rather than leave the rental sector, it is tenants who will pay the price."

The Labour government has scrapped plans to introduce a "British ISA" to the market, according to a report.

The initiative was one of the flagship measures unveiled in former Conservative chancellor Jeremy Hunt's March budget, and would have offered savers the chance to increase their tax-free savings pot each year from £20,000 to £25,000 if the £5,000 incremental sum was invested in UK companies.

According to the Financial Times, the plan has now been scrapped by Rachel Reeves over concerns it would "complicate the ISA landscape".

Investment platform AJ Bell, which led opposition to the idea, said Labour deserved credit for "consigning this ill-conceived idea to the policy dustbin".

It had previously criticised the British ISA plan as a "white elephant" that would fail to support UK-based companies.

Responding to the FT report, AJ Bell chief executive Michael Summersgill said: "The UK ISA was a political gimmick that was doomed to fail in its objective of boosting investment in UK Plc.

"The new government deserves huge credit for consigning this ill-conceived idea to the policy dustbin and will hopefully now take a more sensible, long-term approach to ISA reform than their predecessors, focused on simplification for the benefit of consumers."

He said merging cash ISAs and stocks and shares ISAs was "the obvious starting point" and would make life easier for investors.

Mr Summersgill added that around £30bn in investment could be unlocked if half the money in cash ISA accounts containing £20,000 or more was invested in stocks and shares ISAs.

He also said increasing the ISA allowance to £25,000 would "naturally" drive more money towards UK firms.

The UK's competition watchdog has launched an investigation into Ticketmaster over the sale of Oasis tickets at the weekend.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the investigation would cover how "dynamic pricing" may have been used, and whether the ticket sale "may have breached consumer protection law".

Ticketmaster said: "We are committed to cooperating with the CMA and look forward to sharing more facts about the ticket sale with them."

Thousands of fans were left angry and frustrated in their efforts to buy tickets for the concerts in the UK and Ireland next July and August.

Many entered hours-long virtual queues to buy tickets on three websites, including Ticketmaster, only to find prices balloon into the hundreds of pounds by the time they could buy them, with others missing out completely.

The CMA investigation will also consider whether:

• Ticketmaster has "engaged in unfair commercial practices";
• Oasis fans were given "clear and timely information" explaining that tickets could be subject to "dynamic pricing", how it would operate and how much they would have to pay;
• People were "put under pressureto buy tickets within a short period of time – at a higher price than they understood they would have to pay, potentially impacting their purchasing decisions".

CMA asks fans for screenshots

The watchdog said it would be engaging with Ticketmaster and "gathering evidence from various other sources", including Oasis's management and event organisers.

As part of the probe, fans are asked to submit evidence of their ticket-buying experience through CMA connect - including screenshots if they have them.

Sarah Cardell, CMA chief executive, said it was "clear that many people felt they had a bad experience".

"We want to hear from fans who went through the process and may have encountered issues so that we can investigate whether existing consumer protection law has been breached," she said.

Spending a fair chunk on going to see your favourite big artist is not new - but it certainly feels like concert prices have entered a new stratosphere, with £350 Oasis tickets bringing the subject back into the spotlight over the last week.

So, beyond dynamic pricing, what's behind rising ticket costs? A few months ago theMoney bloginvestigated some of the reasons...

Picking up a Costa coffee or grabbing a latte from Starbucks doesn't sound like an expensive habit - but one generation is spending more than £700 a year doing it.

Millennials outspend all other age groups, forking out an average of £728 a year on takeaway coffees, according to research commissioned by McDonald's.

It found those aged between 28 and 43 spent £52 more a year than the younger Gen Z and £468 more than the older Baby boomers.

Overall, 37% of coffee drinkers said they would even turn down a free cup at work to pay for a "nice" one outside the office.

Those polled said a cup of coffee should cost £1.86.

But that's almost half of what the average on-the-go coffee costs at £3.40, according to FreshGround.

Costs aside, 56% said coffee was a luxury they would not want to live without.

The study also found that the average coffee drinker spends more than £29,000 on takeaway coffee in their lifetime.

Latte was the most popular style, with 23% favouring it, followed by cappuccino on 21% and flat white on 11%.

Marks & Spencer is targeting younger shoppers by spending more money on social media content.

In a bid to "move with the times", the retailer has upped its spend on videos for TikTok and YouTube, with investment in social media ads up nearly 80% in the last year, according to The Telegraph.

Some of you might have noticed recent M&S products trending online - our TikTok for you pages have been filled with people trying out the new "Big Daddy" chocolate bar.

Its £35 Celine handbag dupe also appeared a lot last year.

The high-street giant has also unveiled wider plans to get more shoppers buying through its website and app.

Bosses have hailed the "beginnings of a new M&S", saying the business could grow its fashion and homeware business further on the back of strong online momentum.

The clothing and home business saw sales grow by 5.2% in the year to March, helping to support a 58% rise in profits.

M&S clothing and home managing director Richard Price told reporters he hoped investment in the app, online personalisation and Sparks loyalty programme would help keep sales high.

He said: "We are over two years into our programme for growth and we can really start to see the beginnings of a new M&S.

"Online sales are growing ahead of the market and ahead of stores. It's driven by better product and much more effective branded social marketing.

"We continue to grow our style perceptions and are getting stronger from a value and quality perception as well."

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"It tastes like burning," according to one reviewer.

Beithir Fire is a 75% ABV beer brewed in Scotland that comes with a warning label and (for one 330ml bottle) a £45.95 price tag.

The cost takes into account that it takes more than three months to produce.

As well as purporting to be the world's strongest beer, 88 Brewery also claims it's "the only beer with a 100-year shelf life".

TikToker Dan from@1minutebeerreviewtasted just 35ml of the fiery beverage - the most the brewery recommends you consume at one time.

His thoughts?

"That's really strong. It tastes like burning. My tongue is now numb... I need to go lie down."