StubHub has accused Live Nation and the USA National Independent Venues Association the spread of “false information”. Claims from last week that advertisers speculatively sold tickets to the North American Oasis reunion shows before tickets were sold through official channels. Live Nation’s Ticketmaster responded by claiming, “StubHub is lying.”

“It is clear that Live Nation, Ticketmaster and NIVA conspired to spread false information about ticket availability to further their own political agenda and incite distrust in the secondary market,” said StubHub Laura Dooley says in a bold statement.

She was responding to NIVA’s claim that the availability of Oasis tickets on the resale market early last week, ahead of pre-sales at major sites, showed that new laws were needed to curb the speculative sale of tickets by advertisers in the US to ban.

However, it has been claimed that some tickets for the Oasis shows have actually been on sale through official channels since early last week, which may have been the source of these tickets being listed on StubHub.

Not so, says Ticketmaster issued a statement to Digital Music News It states: “Oasis tickets were made available for sale on StubHub immediately after the North American dates and venues were announced, before sale and before anyone had rights to specific seats.” Ticketmaster prohibits anyone from offering resale tickets before an official presale. StubHub and other resellers prefer to look the other way.”

The campaign against speculative sales

NIVA tracked the listing of thousands of tickets for the Oasis US shows on StubHub and Vivid Seats early last week, although ticket sales across major ticketing platforms only began on Friday and an official pre-sale took place on Thursday.

This means, NIVA argued, that these are speculative offers in which advertisers offer tickets for sale that they have not yet actually secured in the hope of gaining access to the tickets later. The speculative sale of tickets in this way is often criticized, especially if the buyer is unaware that this is happening when paying the price.

A ban on speculative sales is among new regulations for the sale of tickets proposed in a so-called bill in the US Congress Fans first actwhich is supported by both NIVA and Live Nation.

The company’s CEO last week reiterated Live Nation’s opposition to speculative sales Michael Rapino tweeted a link to the NIVA statement and wrote: “We join Oasis and NIVA in calling on Congress to stop speculative ticket sales that are causing great confusion among fans.”

Were last week’s Oasis ticket offers speculative?

StubHub insists it already bans speculative sales on its platform in the US, arguing that last week’s Oasis ticket controversy has nothing to do with advertisers breaking the rules and everything to do with the lack of transparency about it How tickets are delivered through the ticket offering primary locations.

Although official advance sales of Oasis tickets in the US only began on Thursday, StubHub argues that promoters and venues often offer tickets through other channels, albeit with less fanfare. This includes season ticket holders at the stadiums where shows are taking place and according to TicketNewsThat’s exactly what happened in at least one venue hosting an Oasis show.

An email was forwarded from a Chicago Bears season ticket holder describing a pre-sale for the Oasis show at the team’s Soldier Field stadium “open to the club’s season ticket members” starting last Monday, September 30th , is available. TicketNews at the time adds: “It’s almost certain that similar pre-sales have occurred at every venue Oasis performs at for their 2025 stadium tour,” not least because “every US stop of the tour is at a venue that is also the homeland.” an NFL “franchise”.

In keeping with StubHub’s spirit, the TicketNews article states that NIVA “chose to exploit the lack of transparency around when and how tickets will be distributed to score political points and headlines on the high-profile tour,” with Rapino this bolstered the organization’s efforts despite the fact that Live Nation leadership “was well aware prior to the letter that tickets were certainly available for purchase for some.”

Ticketmaster is the problem, says StubHub

Building on this, Dooley’s statement at StubHub adds: “There is a lack of transparency about how tickets are allocated, sold and distributed in the primary ticket market, which prevents consumers from understanding how the ticket industry works and prevents dominant players makes it possible to manipulate “the marketplace”.

“Tickets may appear in resale markets prior to public sale as many industry stakeholders, such as season ticket holders, sponsors and professional resellers, receive early access,” she explains, before noting “that was the case with Oasis.”

“At StubHub, our top priority is to attract fans to events,” she concludes. “We prohibit the sale of speculative tickets and call on Ticketmaster to open lines of communication, provide ticket verification services and do their part to better protect fans.”

StubHub is lying, says Ticketmaster

Ticketmaster’s response begins with “StubHub is lying” and adds that “the season ticket holder’s excuse is baseless.” For Oasis shows in Pasadena, Toronto, Mexico City and New Jersey, “No one had the right to get tickets to season ticket holders,” and even in Chicago, “no one had advance rights to the individual seats that were for sale on StubHub.” were offered”.

This means that StubHub actually allowed the speculative sale of tickets to the Oasis shows, Ticketmaster points out, adding: “This ongoing pattern of deception requires that Congress pass and enforce a comprehensive ban on speculative ticket sales.”

With all of their UK and North American shows selling out, we now expect Oasis to announce their Australian dates tomorrow. Let’s see what ticket controversies there are.