Coldplay’s Chris Martin.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Lakhs of Coldplay fans were left disappointed on September 22 after not being able to get tickets for the British rock band's Mumbai show as the website of official ticketing partner BookMyShow abruptly logged them out.
Amit Vyas, a Mumbai based lawyer and founder of Vertices Partners law firm was also among these fans. According to a report by The Indian Express, despite getting disheartened, Amit decided to take the matter further and filed a police complaint against BookMyShow, Live Nation, and other promoters of the event, after finding out that several of his friends, some of them regular concert goers, had the same experience with the website.
In his complaint, Vyas has accused BookMyShow of black marketing of tickets as the same were available on other websites like Viagogo for extremely high prices.
"They have a lot to explain for logging out or not allowing fans in India to access the BookMyShow app and site sharp at noon on Sunday, September 22, for sufficient time to let them sell the tickets to black marketeers/ticket scalpers/bots and whoever they wanted thereby cheating Coldplay fans," the publication quoted Vyas as saying.
He further went on to allege that the ticketing aggregators with the help of their "promoters/directors/key managerial personnel, deployed bots to create an artificial digital queue which logged out genuine purchasers. Sold out within minutes, these tickets were later available on black marketing websites in bulk," said the complaint.
"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 reads.
Based on the complaint, Mumbai Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) sent second summons to CEO Ashish Hemrajani of Big Tree Entertainment Private Limited, the parent company of BookMyShow and the company's technical head on Sunday. The first summons was sent on September 27.
Vyas is also planning to file a PIL in the matter in the Bombay High Court.
Soon after the fiasco, BookMyShow in a post on X (formerly Twitter) said, "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.”
British rock band Coldplay will perform at Mumbai's DY Patil Sports Stadium, on January 18, 19, and 21 next year.