Indian police investigate resale of tickets for Coldplay Mumbai performances | India

Indian police have opened an investigation after traders bought tickets for Coldplay’s upcoming shows in Mumbai and put them back on sale for more than £750 each.

India is often missed on global tours by popular Western artists and the news that Coldplay would be coming to India for the first time in January to perform two nights of their world tour in Mumbai was greeted with great excitement by music fans.

However, when more than 700,000 people logged into BookMyShow in an attempt to buy tickets, the website quickly crashed. Large numbers were disappointed as tickets sold out within minutes, and many were outraged when tickets reappeared on unauthorized third-party websites, selling for as much as 85,000 rupees (£760, US$1,015).

According to local media, police on Monday questioned BookMyShow’s Chief Operating Officer after receiving a complaint from a Mumbai-based lawyer, Amit Vyas, who alleged that the seller was working with ‘black marketers’ to earn an extra windfall from the ticket sales.

“I contacted almost 100 people who I know are regulars at concerts, but none of them had secured a ticket,” Vyas said, according to the Indian Express newspaper. “This made me suspicious. I then decided to approach the police because I knew something was wrong.”

BookMyShow issued a statement after the public backlash began last week, saying it had “no connection” with unauthorized ticket sales. “Scalping and black marketing of tickets is strictly condemned and punishable in India and BookMyShow strongly opposes this practice,” the company said.

Although reselling tickets through unauthorized or hidden market channels is illegal in India, the practice goes largely unchecked.

The problem of ticket scalping and unauthorized reselling at high prices has become a major problem for the music industry worldwide. Fans in Britain were recently outraged when tickets for the upcoming Oasis reunion sold out in minutes and then reappeared on secondary sites for thousands of pounds, prompting a regulator investigation.

The ticketing website Ticketmaster also faced criticism and political scrutiny over alleged misuse and unfair practices regarding the sale of tickets for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour.

AFP contributed to this report