Coldplay’s Chris Martin performs on day two of the iHeartRadio Music Festival at T-Mobile Arena on September 21, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada, US. Photo courtesy: Reuters
The Bombay High Court on Friday (January 10, 2024) dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking strict guidelines to the Center and the state to curb black marketing and ticket scalping at major events and concerts on online ticket booking platforms. A demand was made to give instructions to make it.
Dismissing the petition, a division bench of judges, Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyay and Justice Amit Borkar, said, “We do not find any merit in the prayer made by the petitioner. The issues raised in the petition primarily relate to policy and law, which fall within the exclusive domain of the legislature and the executive.
“In the absence of a clear statutory framework mandating the relief prayed for and granted, a legal position is that the courts cannot direct the legislature to make and amend the law in a particular manner. We are unable to accept the prayer of the petitioner. However, if the competent authority considers it necessary, they are free to take appropriate legislative or executive measures to address the concerns highlighted by the petitioner,” the bench said.
High Court lawyer petitioner Amit Vyas had filed the police complaint against online ticket booking platform, BookMyShow, and other promoters of the Coldplay concert in India. The petitioner, who failed to secure online tickets for the concert, alleged that the online ticket booking platform manipulated the sale of Coldplay concert tickets, which went live for sale at noon on September 22, 2024, and sold lakhs of rupees within 30 minutes. I sold out. Users appear on the waiting list. Within no time, the same tickets appeared on multinational ticket exchange and ticket resale platform Viagogo and were sold at 30 to 40 times the price mentioned on BookMyShow. The petition said that huge irregularities in the sale of concert tickets, illegalities, ticket manipulation, ticket touting and black marketing resulted in the loss of concert tickets.
The petitioner states that such unethical and illegal practices have deprived genuine consumers of their fundamental right to purchase tickets and access entertainment and live programmes, causing huge economic loss to the public exchequer.
Mr Vyas said there were several instances where tickets were sold at exorbitant prices in the secondary market and the black market has affected ticket sales both offline and online.
The petition said that black marketeers are using bots to hoard tickets and drive out genuine customers. In just a few seconds, bots automate the ticket purchasing process and thus they secure large quantities of tickets within seconds.
Mr Vyas alleged that these bots operate on multiple identities and IP addresses to circumvent restrictions set by primary ticket vendors (PTS) and primary ticket websites (PTWs).
The plea had urged the High Court to constitute an expert committee led by a retired judge and including a cyber expert to study and recommend measures to regulate online ticket sales. The petition also sought direction from the High Court to the Central and Maharashtra governments to formulate strict guidelines to stop black marketing of tickets for major events.
British band Coldplay will perform at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on January 18, 19 and 21, 2025, and at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on January 25 and 26, 2025.
published – January 10, 2025 12:44 PM IST
