Mumbai: EOW initiates investigation into Coldplay ticket scam allegations

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has summoned Ashish Hemrajani, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Bigtree Entertainment Private Limited, the parent company of BookMyShow, and the company's technical head, based on the complaint filed by Amit Vyas, an advocate who has alleged "serious fraud in the sale of tickets" related to the Coldplay concert.

The British rock band is set to perform in Navi Mumbai in January next year. An EOW official said that the summons was issued based on preliminary findings. "In the course of our preliminary inquiry, we have called the officials concerned to participate in the investigations and record their statements," said an EOW officer.

Hemrajani has been asked to appear on Saturday. The advocate in his complaint has alleged that the online sale of tickets of Coldplay concert was controlled by BookMyShow in such a manner that the genuine purchasers were "intentionally logged out of the platform" seconds before 12 pm on September 22 - the day ticket sale went live - or were not allowed to access the platform to buy tickets, with a view to making "unlawful gains".

Vyas further alleged that BookMyShow and Live Nation Entertainment, through their promoters/directors/key managerial personnel, have indulged in "foul play by logging out genuine fans" for a good amount of time and then deploying ticket bots to create an artificial digital queue to deprive the genuine purchasers of the opportunity to buy tickets.

"The tickets had been sold out within a small window of time, and the same were available on www.viagogo.com. Viagogo is now selling the tickets at prices that are exorbitantly high as compared to their original prices, which clearly indicates that the same were made available to Viagogo in bulk, which needs to be thoroughly investigated," the advocate's complaint mentioned. It has been alleged that the tickets were being sold for anywhere between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 12 lakh, which is 30 to 50 times higher than their original price. "It is apparent that BookMyShow and Live Nation Entertainment have colluded to black-market the concert tickets to black marketeers/Viagogo, who are now selling tickets at prices 30 to 50 times higher than their original price," the complaint added.

In response to the accusations, BookMyShow had, on August 24, issued a statement refuting any connections with Viagogo and Gigsberg, asserting that they do not work with third-party sellers for Coldplay's Music of the Spheres tour in India. The company strongly condemned ticket scalping, which is illegal under Indian law, and confirmed that it has filed its own complaint with law enforcement while pledging full cooperation in the ongoing investigation.

"Scalping is strictly condemned and punishable by law in India. We have filed a complaint with the police authorities and will provide complete support to them in the investigation of this matter. We urge you not to fall victim to these scams. Any tickets bought from unauthorised sources will be at the risk of the consumer and can turn out to be fake tickets," BookMyShow had said.