The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought a response from the Centre over the illegal practice of ‘ticket scalping’ under which tickets of music concerts and similar events are resold at inflated prices.
The PIL was filed by a Delhi resident, Rohan Gupta, referring to upcoming music concerts by British rock band Coldplay, and singers Diljit Dosanjh and Karan Aujla.
The plea said the tickets of Mr. Dosanjh’s “Dil-Luminati Tour” event scheduled to be held at Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium on October 26, were sold out within three minutes of going on sale.
Mr. Gupta said being an avid fan of the singer, he tried to purchase the ticket, but was unable to buy it due to high demand. He said the tickets were later found readily available on third party websites at inflated prices. Mr. Gupta said he purchased two tickets at almost four times their original price.
Later, Mr. Gupta said he came across a blog post by Zomato Limited, the authorised seller of the tickets, declaring that any ticket purchased through third party platforms shall be considered invalid and holders of such tickets shall be denied entry to the event.
The plea contended that with this clarification “the tickets hold no value despite the same being purchased for a higher price”. The plea submitted that the genuine fans are being deprived of the access to the event and are being forced to pay an unregulated premium price of the tickets.
The petition said, “Scalping fosters a black market where fraudulent and counterfeit tickets become more prevalent, further exploiting consumers.” It said it also has a detrimental effect on the government revenue as these are currently occurring through informal or unregulated channels, with much of the revenue escaping the official tax system.
Published – October 10, 2024 01:39 am IST