Speeches by Western.

“If I may say, we are getting bogged down in semantics. Between you and the venue, you establish a price, let us put it like that. Then you have other prices that seem to come into play according to demand. I am interested to know what data helps to drive the movement in price during the period those tickets are availab…”

“You agree a price with the venue.”

“Do they tell you what the top level price is—the platinum price?”

“How would you know that?”

“Minister, are you concerned that consumers’ data may be used by companies to exploit consumers?”

“In terms of policy work, what are you doing to try to establish more transparent pricing?”

“Is that pattern of behaviour just called greed?”

“I am interested to know what information the company uses when determining its price. What data would you use to help to establish the price for a particular consumer?”

“In your opening remarks, you said that Ticketmaster does not rip off its customers. I am sure music fans around the country hearing that will be very surprised to learn that. In fact, you may be aware that, among many fans, the company is referred to as “Ticket Shysters”. It is not a term I am familiar with personally,…”

“Thinking back to the roots of the game, clubs were important to communities and to those they were built around; essentially this is going to price those people out, is it not? A lot of fans will understand that you may have a premium price for a Manchester United game—although I would be very surprised at that—but rea…”

“To be clear, there is no user information, such as prior purchasing patterns or demographic, used in setting dynamic pricing?”

“That is what FIFA is looking to do: it is obviously not very wealthy and needs the money. I’m joking. Can I throw a question to you all about your engagement with both DBT and the CMA? How are you helping to shape policy and regulation over these different forms of variable pricing? May I start with you, Sue?”

“You make decisions with the event organisers. That is what you are now saying. Ticketmaster makes decisions with the venue. That is what you just said.”

“You are correcting yourself. The point is, when it comes to driving the price, the consumer sees the price moving. Is there any use of consumer data—cookies and so on—in establishing the price for that particular consumer?”

“Whether the companies are owned by Live Nation Entertainment or not, does the pricing in resale markets have any influence on the price of the dynamically priced primary sale tickets?”

“But are they linked in any way through any algorithm?”

“Do you have evidence of it?”

“To go back to the specifics about online and the dynamic pricing we have been talking about, a lot of consumers are very upset in the sense that retailers and providers are using data that they are collecting—cookies, browsing histories and so on—to establish disadvantageous pricing for that particular consumer. Have y…”

“You set a base price with the venue. You have explained that you set a base price.”

“I call on the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, and I would appreciate it if her speech could be reduced to around nine minutes.”