Dynamic Pricing Bills Can’t Ban Demand

In September 2025, two months before the election, Democratic candidate for New York City’s mayoral Election, Zohran Mamdani, pledged to take on FIFA, the world’s largest soccer federation, with a bold proposal. Celebrating “Game Over Greed,” the campaign sought to end dynamic pricing, the practice of adjusting prices in real time based on market demand and scarcity. Zohran’s petition would made three demands: “No dynamic pricing, Reinstatement of the cap on ticket resales; 15 percent of tickets set aside for residents at a discount.” Much of the discontent among fans came from the fact that FIFA’s ticket pricing would allow seats initially sold for affordable prices to be marked up by thousands. Critics argued that these market practices were another form of price gouging by FIFA, exploiting historically high demand.

Now, with the tournament finished, the debate has intensified among fans and officials. The attorney general of both New York and New Jersey issued subpoenas to FIFA, investigating ticketing practices and citing a 34-percent price hike across all ticket categories. Reports showed that prices for seats at the World Cup Final in MetLife Stadium in the New York/New Jersey area reached new heights. Questions of how to allocate that game’s 80,663 seats among five billion soccer fans invited scrutiny of FIFA’s pricing practices and the broader use of dynamic pricing.

So what is dynamic pricing exactly, and how does it work? Unlike traditional ticketing, where prices are predetermined at a fixed rate regardless of conditions, dynamic pricing uses algorithms to adjust prices based on supply, demand, remaining inventory, and purchase timing. Companies adjust rates based on demand while also allocating scarce tickets to the consumers who value them most (as measured by willingness to pay). For example, if thousands of fans want to buy tickets to a playoff game, teams raise prices in response to stronger demand. It also helps consumers, though, by allowing…