After skipping the first summons, Ashish Hemrajani, founder and CEO of BookMyShow’s parent company Big Tree Entertainment, reportedly failed to appear for a second time. However, the company’s COO, Anil Makhija, met with the officials.
BookMyShow faced severe backlash from fans and allegations rose over black market ticket sales of the Coldplay concert.
Here’s all you need to know:
Sep 22, 2024: The tickets for the Coldplay concerts, scheduled for January 18, 19, and 21, were being resold at excessive prices shortly after their official release on September 22.
Sep 28, 2024: Advocate Amit Vyas filed the complaint alleging black market sales of the Coldplay concert and Hemrajani and the technical head were asked to provide statements.
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An FIR was registered under the sections of Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 including charges of organised crime, fraud, criminal conspiracy and breach of trust.
Allegations on BookMyShow
Fans alleged that the online ticketing platform enabled third parties to sell Coldplay concert tickets at exorbitant prices, neglecting genuine customers. The tickets, originally priced at Rs 2,500 are reportedly being sold for an inflated price of Rs 3 lakh illegally by influencers and third parties.
BookMyShow and its parent company were also accused of using bots to unfairly control ticket sales.
Fans outrage on social media
BookMyShow claimed that more than 1.3 crore fans had logged in to the portal to purchase tickets. Fans have been expressing their anger on social media and demanding more transparency in ticket sales for big events.
The third Coldplay concert scheduled to happen on January 21, 2025, at Mumbai’s DY Patil Stadium, for which tickets went on sale on Sunday, but many fans complained about long virtual queues on BookMyShow. Some fans reported that the website and app crashed due to heavy traffic.
BookMyShow response
Sep 22, 2024: BookMyShow stated that unauthorised resale and scalping of tickets are illegal and subject to legal penalties in India. They urged fans to be cautious and only purchase tickets through the official channels, reminding them to avoid scams.
BookMyShow implemented a queuing system to deal with the high demand for tickets. Ticket prices ranged from Rs 2,500 to Rs 12,500, with VIP lounge tickets costing Rs 35,000.
Sep 24, 2024: It also filed a police complaint about the sale of counterfeit Coldplay concert tickets on certain platforms, clarifying no association with resale platforms such as Viagogo and Gigsberg in an official statement published on Sep 24, 2024 on the platform ‘X’.