Mumbai: Coldplay concert ticket fiasco reaches EOW

Coldplay during their ongoing Music of the Spheres World Tour. Pic/X

Amid complaints of tickets for Coldplay's upcoming concert in Navi Mumbai being resold for lakhs, a lawyer, Amit Vyas, has approached the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) to file a complaint against BookMyShow, Live Nation and other promoters for allegedly cheating fans.

On September 21, fans logged into BookMyShow hoping to buy tickets to the British rock band's gig, which is scheduled to be held in January 2025 at DY Patil Stadium. However, several expressed frustration on social media over the tickets being sold out instantly and their alleged black marketing on platforms such as Viagogo.

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Advocate Vyas, a fan of the band, who approached the EOW, will soon file a PIL in this matter.

Alleging that BookMyShow was being mismanaged and tickets may have been bought by bots, he said, "I had logged onto the BookMyShow website and app. But I was kicked out of them in no time. The site also claimed that there are many others ahead of me and I could not purchase a ticket."

According to the complainant, several fans had experienced the same situation. Some social media users claimed when searching for evidence of ticket scalping, they found one website Viagogo was offering tickets at astronomical prices.

"It is a trite law that dishonestly causing black marketeers/Viagogo to provide tickets not for personal use, but so they can engage in ticket scalping/black marketing amounts to cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property," Vyas stated in his complaint.

The complainant also stated that the accused might have sold the tickets to Vivagogo, despite BookMyshow being the exclusive ticketing partner. Fans must now pay anywhere between Rs 1 lakh to Rs 12 lakh for a ticket to see the Grammy-winning artistes, who are on their Music of the Spheres World Tour.

While EOW sources confirmed that the agency had received the complaint, BookMyShow did not respond to mid-day's calls by press time.

The aggregator service, however, released a statement late on Tuesday, which stated, "BookMyShow has no association with any ticket-selling/reselling platforms such as Viagogo and Gigsberg or third-party individuals for the purpose of reselling Coldplay's Music of the Spheres World Tour 2025 in India." "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. 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. Beware of such scammers."