Indian police close Coldplay ticket investigation

Police in India have closed an investigation into promoter BookMyShow (BMS) over the ticket sale for Coldplay’s recent concerts in Mumbai after finding “no irregularities”.

The band played three 55,000-cap dates at Mumbai’s DY Patil Sports Stadium on 18-19 & 21 January as part of their Music of the Spheres World Tour.

Tickets, priced between 2,500 rupees (€27) to 12,000 rupees (€129), sold out within 30 minutes last September, only to quickly reappear on secondary ticketing platforms at up to 40x face value.

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police launched a preliminary inquiry after lawyer Amit Vyas filed a criminal complaint against BMS and others, accusing the company of using bots to manipulate the sales process and colluding with resale sites to scalp tickets on the black market.

“Scalping and black marketing of tickets is strictly condemned and punishable by law in India and BookMyShow vehemently opposes this practice”

BMS, which said 13 million people attempted to buy tickets, denied any association with unauthorised secondary ticketing platforms and lodged a formal First Information Report (FIR) with law enforcement agencies.

“Scalping and black marketing of tickets is strictly condemned and punishable by law in India and BookMyShow vehemently opposes this practice,” it said at the time. “We have not only filed a complaint with the police authorities but are also proactively working with them to provide complete support in the investigation of this matter in any manner that may be required.”

The Hindustan Times reports that the EOW has now dropped the case, having found no evidence of ticket manipulation.

The week after their three Mumbai dates, Coldplay performed to 111,000 fans a night – the biggest shows of their career –at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, on 25-26 January. The two gigs also set a record as the largest stadium concerts of the 21st century.

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