Coldplay concert ticket case: BookMyShow CEO, technical head summoned again today

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police issued fresh summons to Ashish Hemrajani, CEO of Big Tree Entertainment, the parent company of BookMyShow, and the company's technical head, to appear for questioning on Monday in connection with an investigation into the alleged black marketing of British rock band Coldplay's concert tickets.

Hemrajani and the technical head were issued summons for the second time after they failed to appear for questioning on September 27. However, the police said that both of them haven't contacted the police yet in this regard.

The investigation was initiated following a complaint filed by Advocate Amit Vyas accusing the ticketing platform of facilitating the black marketing of tickets for the highly anticipated Coldplay concert scheduled to be held on January 18, 19 and 21, 2025, at DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.

Following this, BookMyShow issued a statement on Saturday, clarifying their stand and action taken to ensure fair ticketing.

"With 13 million (1.3 crore) fans eager to get tickets and logged in, emotions ran high on September 22nd on BookMyShow for Coldplay's 'Music Of The Spheres' World Tour 2025 in India. At BookMyShow, we've worked hard to ensure every fan had a fair chance to secure tickets, capping it at 4 tickets per user across all shows, providing clear, step-by-step booking guides and maintaining transparent communication through all our official channels," a BookMyShow spokesperson clarified.

BookMyShow addressed the unauthorised sale of tickets and mentioned, "It came to our notice however that unauthorised platforms listed (and are continuing to list) tickets for Coldplay's Music Of The Spheres World Tour 2025 in India, both before and after the official sale. BookMyShow has no association with any such unauthorised ticket selling/reselling platforms including but not limited to Viagogo and Gigsberg or third-party individuals for the purpose of reselling Coldplay's Music Of The Spheres World Tour 2025 in India."

Condemning the black marketing of tickets, the statement added, "Scalping and black marketing of tickets is strictly condemned and punishable by law in India and BookMyShow vehemently opposes this practice. 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. To our consumers, we would like to reiterate that any tickets bought from unauthorised sources will be at their own risk and may likely be invalid or fake tickets."

On September 18, Coldplay announced their 'Music of the Sphere' World Tour, where they initially were going to perform two shows in DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai but added an extra show on January 21 following high demand.