Police ask BookMyShow to prevent black-marketing of tickets ahead of the Coldplay tour

• The police have directed BookMyShow to prevent the black-marketing of tickets ahead of the Coldplay tour.
• Coldplay is set to tour India in January 2025 for its concerts.
• A PIL has also been filed seeking guidelines to curb black marketing and ticket scalping.

Maharashtra police's cyber wing has issued a notice to the online ticketing website BookMyShow, asking it to implement strict measures including the sale of name-based tickets for the concerts of British band 'Coldplay' in January and other shows.

The notice was issued by Maharashtra’s Cyber wing to prevent exploitation of fans who buy tickets from online platforms, an official said on Wednesday.

There are increasing numbers of complaints across online forums and social media about problems faced in booking tickets for such high-profile concerts and events through online platforms, an official said.

Many people reported unresponsive websites during critical booking periods, he said, adding that it leads to black-marketing of tickets at exorbitant prices, sometimes as high as 10 times the original price.

The Maharashtra Cyber wing found that measures taken by the platforms to avoid such situations were insufficient, said the official.

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has also been filed in the Bombay High Court seeking guidelines to curb black marketing and ticket scalping at major events, in the backdrop of alleged foul play during the online ticket sale for Coldplay's highly anticipated concert in Navi Mumbai in January 2025.

The PIL said there are several irregularities and illegalities during the sale of tickets for major events, such as concerts, live shows and so on.

Such irregularity and illegality were witnessed in September when tickets for the Coldplay concert were made available on the BookMyShow platform, it said.

With inputs from PTI.

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