Why the ban on dynamic pricing ISN'T happening

Jan 26
8 min read

A deep dive on the federal government's 2024 promise

Ah, here we are again. It’s electric, isn’t it? The thrum of excitement in the air as another concert tour is announced. You can already see the feather boas and sequins that will limbo into stadiums (unless we’re going with a completely different aesthetic for the HS4 concerts, in which case, forget I said anything).

With Harry Styles’ 2026 tour announced, fans are preparing to face the great war of buying tickets this week. Every time we’ve got to brace ourselves for the battle against queues and algorithms, one issue rears its head time and time again: dynamic pricing. Like a whack-a-mole, it just keeps popping up.

You’re probably thinking: didn’t the federal government say they were going to ban dynamic pricing? And if they’re doing that, when’s it going to happen?

I also had these thoughts, so I went into my tin foil hat zone (as I call it) to see what’s going on.

Spoiler alert: it’s not going to happen. The ban on dynamic pricing is not happening.

So let’s break it down.

The OG announcement

On 16 October 2024, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a crackdown to “stop businesses ripping off Australians by banning unfair trading practices”.¹ This included practices like:

“‘Subscription traps’ that use arduous and confusing steps to make cancelling a subscription difficult.”²
“‘Drip pricing’ practices where fees are hidden or added throughout the stages of a purchase.”³

AND

“Dynamic pricing where a product’s price changes during the transaction process.”⁴

*These dot points are straight from their media release, which is still online right here.

The awkward problem with this announcement? It was a classic ‘announce first’ and ask the department to do the work afterwards.

(This is about to get a little boring, but stay with me here).

The consultation

The Treasury department took this announcement and went to work. They asked for feedback on these ideas that the government had kinda already promised to do (awks).

The submissions were from industry heavyweights, like business lobby groups, retailers associations and finance organisations. Because dynamic pricing isn’t just a way to gouge concert goers. It’s used in several industries to bump up the price when demand is high.

For example, your usual Uber from the city to home is $20. But at night after a major event has just finished, your usual trip has jumped from $20 to $100. That’s a kind of dynamic pricing.

The price of roses going up for Valentine’s day. That’s dynamic pricing.

So a lot of businesses have an interest in making sure this practice is allowed to continue.

Many of the submissions also seemed to think dynamic pricing hasn’t been used or isn’t an issue when it comes to event tickets in Australia. Bizarrely, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (they’re an advocacy group that represents businesses in Aus), said this:

“While there is a recent example of prices increasing while consumers queued for hours to get Oasis concert tickets in the United Kingdom, there has not been similar example in Australia. We appear to be jumping at shadows.”⁵

Clearly no one at the ACCI is a music fan!

A lot of these groups said there were already decent laws in place to make sure businesses weren’t taking advantage of consumers through dynamic pricing or doing anything illegal.

At this point, I was like, say whaaaat? So I sashayed away to look at the laws. (We’ll come back to this later).

But wait - why isn’t the ban happening?

On 23 November 2025, Ministers from all states and territories agreed to move ahead with new laws to stop unfair trading practices⁶ - aka dodgy pricing strategies. And to be fair, the legislation is supposed to stop things like hidden fees at the checkout and subscription traps. In theory, that sounds okay.

But dynamic pricing DIDN’T MAKE THE CUT.

Treasury confirmed in its latest consultation paper that dynamic pricing ‘is not forming part of this policy proposal’ that they recommended the government move forward with.

This is because of many of the submissions saying existing laws could already stop dynamic pricing. One of the groups that suggested current laws are already adequate is the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) - the body set up to police these dodgy practices.

So… Can current laws ping event promoters then?

If the ACCC says current laws around dynamic pricing are ‘adequate’, then surely event promoters could be pinged right now for dodgy dealings?

Nope.

There are no specific laws that relate to dynamic or surge pricing in Australia right now.

The ACCC website says ‘surge or dynamic pricing isn’t illegal, but businesses must be clear about the price consumers pay.’

They pointed to existing laws that say businesses cannot engage in misleading or deceptive conduct, or make false or misleading representations about prices to customers.⁷

And THAT’S where this starts to get messy.

There’s an increasing trend for event promoters to not release the price of tickets prior to sales occurring. And it’s likely they’re doing that to exploit a loophole.

This post is not suggesting that event promoters are committing any wrongdoing or anything illegal by not advertising prices.

The ACCC used this example of a situation which is already illegal in Australia:

“Similarly, where a business represents in its advertising, or at the start of a transaction, that the price of a product or service is “from $X”, but due to the use of dynamic pricing, no customer is able to obtain the product or service for $X, the representation that the product or service was “from $X” is misleading.”

But can you be done for false or misleading advertising if you didn’t advertise the prices to begin with?

The ACCC does say that silence or a lack of information can be considered misleading. But it’s not obvious when or how the business “must be clear” about the price you’re going to pay.

Event promoters might say that you know the price you’re going to pay when you select tickets before you get to the checkout. They’d say this means you have all the information you need before making the purchase.

Clear as mud.

If everyone uses dynamic pricing, do we just have to get used to it with events too?

The way dynamic pricing works with events feels completely different to how it works with industries like airlines or accommodation.

People have pointed out that we’re tolerant of dynamic pricing when it comes to Uber trips or roses on Valentine’s Day, but just not when it comes to event tickets.

Here’s why it’s different:

You don’t have any other options to purchase the tickets from

If the price of an Uber trip home has surged sky high, you can always consider other transport options like public transport, a taxi, call a friend etc. Same with roses - the prices might be high everywhere for Valentine’s Day, but you can shop around to find a price you think is reasonable. Or choose to go and buy a different gift instead.

With concert or event tickets, there is no alternative. You have one option. And because there’s no one else selling the same tickets for that event, there’s no competition to bring prices down.

You’re on a countdown

Literally. When you’re buying tickets for a major event, there’s usually a countdown of 10 minutes on the screen as soon as you get in.

With your Uber trip or the roses, you can take your time to look at the prices available and see what suits you and your finances.

With concert tickets, you’re forced into a split-second decision based on panic. And if you’ve waited hours in a queue for an artist you love, you’re probably going to just grab any tickets you can get.

Even if they cost far more than you wanted to pay.

Monopolies (one business being the sole supplier of a product) and pressure tactics aren’t unique to events.

But combine them with dynamic pricing and you’ve got a dangerous pressure cooker. It’s a purchasing

situation unlike any other.

That’s why more should be done to ensure transparency around ticket prices, the use of dynamic pricing and what that means for buyers.

What now?

The legislation against unfair trading practices (dodgy things like hidden fees) are being drafted right now. And when the legislation is done, Treasury says stakeholders will have another chance to provide feedback on the draft.

That means any person from the public can give feedback on the draft laws.

But if we already know they’re not going to ban dynamic pricing, what else could we do?

It’s likely the ban will include a ‘general prohibition on unfair trading practices.’ And what exactly does that mean? Your guess is as good as mine. It means that any pricing tactic that could be seen to be a bit dodgy would be illegal under a general ban. But it’s incredibly vague; the federal government will need to put some guidelines in place as to what falls under this general ban. So it’s unclear if dynamic pricing could be illegal under the general ban or not.

Some of the submissions to the Treasury consultation DID have some ideas on how to create better transparency around ticket prices if dynamic pricing is to continue.

The Australian Live Music Business Council suggested things like⁸:

“Advise that the ticket is dynamically priced”
“Advise the standard ticket price (rack rate) and the rate the ticket cost is being increased by”
“Display the quantity tickets left so that consumer can make a decision to proceed at a higher rate”
“Allow extended time period to finalise a ticket purchase if the ticket is being dynamically priced above the standard ticket price so the consumer can make a decision without being pressured into missing out decisions”

The Law Council of Australia also suggested changes such as⁹:

“Price-locking after you commit to buying”
“Transparency requirements for dynamic pricing models”
“Time-limited price guarantees”

Would any of this solve the problem?

It wouldn’t stop dynamic pricing from happening. But it would mean there’s greater transparency about it and the prices you might be queuing up to pay.

You might not think that’s good enough. But unfortunately in the world of politics, you celebrate the small wins that will make any difference. Anything that provides greater transparency around the process of dynamic pricing and ticket sales would be a good thing in my books.

Acknowledging that it’s actually an issue in Australia also seems like it would be a great place to start (happy to come and talk to you ACCI!).

Issues like this feel like they don’t matter very much in the scheme of life and death policies in health or the NDIS. But a broken promise is a broken promise.

It’s not wrong of the Government to accept advice from industry and expert bodies (like the ACCC) on how to legislate these issues. In fact, it’s kinda what they’re supposed to do.

But it is wrong of them to try and pretend that banning dynamic pricing was never on the table.

It’s like trying to forget that really bad haircut you had at 15. You never bring it up, but eventually someone will find it in your digital footprint.

TL;DR: The federal government promised to ban dynamic pricing but they’re not doing it. This is because of suggestions that adequate laws are already in place to prevent it, except there seems to be loopholes that are being exploited. Draft laws to ban unfair trading practices will be released later this year, with the chance for people to have their say on the draft laws.

This article was also published on Substack.

Want me to go full tin foil hat on a policy for your business or organisation? Click here and fill out the contact form.

Footnotes:

“Albanese Government to stop the rip offs from unfair trading practices.” Prime Minister of Australia, 16 October 2024, https://www.pm.gov.au/media/albanese-government-stop-rip-offs-unfair-trading-practices.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “Unfair Trading Practices: Design of General and Specific Prohibitions (Submission to the Treasury).” Treasury, Treasury, https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2025-04/c2024-602157-acci.pdf .

“Stopping unfair trading: subscription traps and hidden fees targeted.” Ministers, Treasury Portfolio, 23 November 2025, https://ministers.treasury.gov.au/ministers/andrew-leigh-2025/media-releases/stopping-unfair-trading-subscription-traps-and-hidden.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. “Unfair trading practices.” Treasury, December 2024, https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2025-05/c2024-602157-accc.pdf

Australian Live Music Business Council. “Unfair trading practices.” Treasury, November 2024, https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2025-04/c2024-602157-almbc.pdf.

Law Council of Australia. “Unfair trading practices –Consultation on the design of proposed general and specific prohibitions.” Treasury, 20 December 2024, https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2025-04/c2024-602157-law-council-of-australia.pdf