BookMyShow after police summon CEO over Coldplay Row

A Mumbai Police official said the CEO failed to comply with the summons and appeared before them on Saturday.

Mumbai:

A day after BookMyShow's CEO and chief technical officer were summoned by Mumbai Police in January over the alleged black marketing of tickets for Coldplay concerts in Navi Mumbai, the company said it has no association with any unauthorized ticket selling or resale platforms I have and have done so also filed a police report.

BookMyShow has also claimed that it has taken a number of measures to ensure that all genuine fans have a fair chance of securing tickets to the British pop-rock band's concerts, warning against passes from unauthorized sources to buy as they may be invalid or counterfeit.

The Mumbai Police summons to BookMyShow CEO and co-founder Ashish Hemrajani and its technical director came on Friday following a complaint from a lawyer who had alleged that the platform facilitated the black marketing of tickets for Coldplay concerts at the event Music Of The Spheres World Tour which will take place from January 19th to 21st at the DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai.

A Mumbai police official said Mr Hemrajani and the technical director failed to comply with the summons and appeared before them on Saturday without giving any explanation. He said a new summons would now be issued.

In his complaint, advocate Amit Vyas said the tickets priced at Rs 2,500 were being sold on some websites and up to Rs 3 lakh by some individuals and demanded a fraud case against BookMyShow.

The platform's website had crashed before tickets went on sale on September 22 and some people said their queue count was 5 lakh plus when the website came back online and tickets could be purchased.

“A fair chance”

A BookMyShow spokesperson said: “With 13 million (1.3 crore) fans eager to secure tickets and logged in, emotions were running high at BookMyShow on September 22 for Coldplay’s Music Of The Spheres World Tour 2025 in India. At BookMyShow, we've worked hard.” To ensure every fan has a fair chance of securing tickets, we limit the number of tickets to 4 tickets per user for all shows, provide clear, step-by-step booking instructions and ensure transparent communication across all our official channels.”

The company said the queuing system was put in place to cope with high demand and while this may have caused a short delay, it ensured “minimal disruption” to genuine fans. It was also noted that a third show was added, which received a great response.

“However, we have become aware that unauthorized platforms have listed tickets – and continue to do so – both before and after official sale. BookMyShow has no affiliation with any such unauthorized ticket sales/resale platforms, including but not limited to Viagogo and Gigsberg or any third party for the purpose of reselling Coldplay's Music Of The Spheres World Tour 2025 in India,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that BookMyShow is against the criminal practice of scalping and black marketing of tickets and said that the company has filed a police report.

“We have not only lodged a complaint with the police authorities but are also proactively working with them to provide full assistance in any way necessary in the investigation of this matter. We would like to reiterate to our consumers that any tickets purchased “entry from unauthorized sources are at your own risk and are likely to be invalid or counterfeit tickets,” the spokesperson warned.