Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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66. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the plans to address the issue of dynamic pricing in both the hotel and live performance ticketing industries; and to provide a list of dates and times for meetings he has held with other Ministers or with stakeholders in the sector to address these issues since he assumed office. [37063/24]

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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This question relates to the furore surrounding dynamic pricing. What plans has the Minister to address this issue in the hotel and live performance ticketing industries, and will he provide the dates and times of meetings with other Ministers and stakeholders in the sector to move towards addressing this rip-off culture that is appearing?

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as ucht an cheist thábhachtach seo a ardú. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, is the independent statutory body that enforces competition and consumer protection law under the remit of our Department. It continues to promote and monitor compliance with competition and consumer protection laws across all sectors of the market, including ticket sales, and to investigate potential breaches, prohibited practices and offences.

With regard to concerns of concert ticket sales recently, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Burke, has asked the CCPC to report on its review of pricing strategies employed on this occasion. In response, the CCPC has advised there are legitimate concerns about consumer experiences of buying concert tickets on 31 August and it has opened an investigation into the matter. The CCPC will take appropriate action if consumer protection law has been broken. We will respect the independent nature of this investigation and await its outcome. The outcome of the investigation will inform the consideration of any possible policy amendments.

We also engage regularly with the hotel industry. The Hospitality and Tourism Forum, which the Minister, Deputy Burke, co-chairs with the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, provides a platform for structured engagement with the tourism and hospitality sectors. The forum recently met on 12 June.

Regarding hotel pricing, Fáilte Ireland published research earlier this year that it commissioned on hotel pricing in Dublin. It confirmed that by comparison to similar destinations, including Edinburgh and Amsterdam, Dublin hotels were broadly in line with average daily rates and levels of operating margin.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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I agree with the independence of the CCPC review and I wish it well in the investigation. The question, however, is what the Minister is going to do, first, to ensure dynamic pricing is defined in law, which it is not, and second, what he is going to do, not about the specific events at the end of August but about the general trend where the more demand there is, the more people are ripped off and more money is squeezed out of consumers? It is clearly unfair and misleading, it is unfair practice, and it is false advertising. There is a whole range of criteria which what happened before and during August falls under. What is the Minister going to do to ensure all prices are clear to the consumer in order that they know exactly the price of their purchase and we are not feeding the image of unfair pricing or bad practice?

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I absolutely agree with the Deputy's concerns regarding unfair pricing. This Government has already introduced legislation in this space, such as the Sale of Tickets (Cultural, Entertainment, Recreational and Sporting Events) Act 2021, which prohibits the sale and advertising of tickets or ticket packages for prices exceeding the original sale price of those tickets for events taking place in designated venues or designated events.

Consumer law is very strong. It requires traders to provide certain information to consumers prior to purchase, including the total price and taxes, which allows consumers to make an informed choice whether to purchase. Individual companies decide on the selling price of products and are permitted to adjust their prices in response to demand once an accurate price is displayed to the consumer in advance of the sale. That is very important.

We will await the feedback from the CCPC investigation. As the Deputy has said, it is independent. I also point out that, at EU level, dynamic pricing is currently not prohibited by EU consumer law. The EU Commission, however, has just published a report on the digital fitness check. It has looked at an evaluation of the effect of three EU directives: the unfair commercial practices directive, the consumer rights directive and the unfair contract terms directive. The result of the fitness check reported that most concerns raised at EU level in this space were in respect of the reselling of tickets. We are actively waiting, however, to see what comes from the CCPC. It is looking at more than 100 complaints that came in regarding this event.

I assure the Deputy that we will learn from its recommendations and act quickly on them.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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I hope most examples will not be just in Ireland and the reaction to those types of fast practices. If advertising standards are to be complied with, the minimum or maximum price have to be advertised clearly. Very simply, we need to put in law what is the maximum price so that somebody purchasing a bedroom for a weekend or a concert ticket knows exactly what the price can go to. That is clear and simple and it is one way of addressing this issue. I am not saying that those who are selling a product or service should not sell it for whatever price. That is not the issue. The issue is that when people are online, dynamic pricing goes out of kilter. That adds to the reputation, wrongly, I believe, of rip-off Ireland. There are many good businesses, including hoteliers and those involved in concerts, that do not engage in fast practices and are decent and honourable people. In fact, they usually go the other way and reduce prices if they can rather than increase them. We need to address this to protect ourselves and consumers.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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I raised the issue of dynamic pricing with the Minister in February. At that stage, he said he did not have a concern on the basis that the CCPC had reported that the incidents were few. Even a few incidents would be a few too many. I am glad there is a realisation that there is in fact an issue. It is a pity that came off the back of complaints from people. As the Minister said, over a hundred complaints were received.

It is entirely possible for large and famous touring groups to limit their prices, and some of them do. As I read, The Cure is one of them. People are, in effect, being held to ransom by two brothers from Manchester. People wait in a queue for hours and hours and at the end find their friend bought a ticket for €180 and could stand beside them in the same venue having paid €450 for the same ticket. That is not right. I fully respect that legislation was passed to stop people getting ripped off by ticket touts. We now need strong legislation and a strong response to stop people getting people ripped off in this way.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I want to go back to the remarks of Deputy Ó Snodaigh. Dynamic pricing is used in many sectors and we have to make sure that in dealing with the consequences of one model we do not damage the other sectors that use it responsibly and in the best interests of the consumer. That is why the CCPC process will be of use to us. There is also work underway at European Commission level, which means we will be able to act collectively in this space. We do not want that kind of differential. What happened during this particular event should not have happened. It is the subject of investigation. I do not want to say anything that would prejudice that investigation. Whoever will be in this position when that investigation is completed should act on that quickly.