Fans anticipating the return of British rock band Coldplay to India were met with a crushing disappointment: exorbitant ticket resale prices and allegations of fraud, CNN reports.
Tickets for the band’s three Mumbai shows in January, their first in the country since 2016, were being resold online for as much as $11,000 – a staggering sum considering India’s GDP per capita is $2,500 a year.
The chaos began on September 22, when tickets were scheduled to go on sale at 12 p.m. local time through official vendor BookMyShow (BMS). However, the website and app crashed under the overwhelming demand. Fans who managed to join the virtual queue, which was reportedly hundreds of thousands strong, found themselves locked out before they could purchase tickets priced between $30 and $417.
Within minutes, tickets were sold out and reappeared on other platforms at exorbitant prices, leading to widespread accusations of bot use and scalping.
In response to the controversy, Mumbai police’s Economic Offences Wing summoned BookMyShow founder and CEO Ashish Hemjarani for questioning.
The company, in a statement on X, denied any association with ticket resale platforms or individuals, claiming they had also filed a complaint with police about the alleged sale of fake tickets on certain platforms.
The incident highlights the growing frustration with ticket-buying processes for major events. Last month, Oasis’s reunion tour faced criticism over Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing system, which adjusts prices based on demand. Ticketmaster also faced scrutiny in November 2022 for its handling of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, which saw “historically unprecedented demand.”
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