The Big Ticket Game of Music Concerts : A Legal Perspective

By Aditya Trivedi

Are you also a heartbroken Coldplay fan who couldn’t fetch the tickets and waited in the ‘never-ending’ queue of internet booking customers. As a lawyer, I have my set of observations from these ticket sales. This is violating many of our laws, in essence, contract law, consumer protection, cyber law, criminal law and some aspects of competition law. Creation of artificial demand also violates the principles of economics.

Manipulation of ticket prices

It is observed from recent experiences, including Diljit Dosanjh’s upcoming concert, that, for customers, the prices differ on various platforms when they buy these tickets. The timings of tickets going live differs. We must also understand that in a country as diverse as India, internet connections are not stable in every nook and corner of the country. A mechanism such as this is discriminatory and manipulative.

Tickets sold in ‘black’

It is a known fact, which we know, from instagram stories, telegram chats, and other mediums, that tickets are sold in black after the official ticketing sales are over. Often, these sales are manipulative and hyper inflated, even ten times higher than the original price. There are middle-men behind your screens and black marketing of tickets not only violates Indian law. For black marketing, an individual can be booked under Consumer Protection Act, 2019 for unfair trade practices and Section 318(4) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 (BNSS) [formerly Section 420 IPC] and Section 61(2) of BNSS [formerly Section 120B of IPC] for criminal conspiracy.

In these ticketing episodes, there are serious concerns that law enforcement agencies should look. The ‘sold out’ tickets does not always include all tickets to be sold out. These tickets are actually ‘not sold’. As per a report of New York State Attorney General, less than 50% of the tickets are made available to the general public. Sometimes tickets are sold to bots which can fetch tickets with superhuman speed.

Fake accounts

Recently, Delhi Police posted an instagram post as a disclaimer to customers to not click on suspicious links in the garb of booking their favorite concerts. This is a genuine concern. A fan, after grieving for not getting tickets, may be desperate to book them from elsewhere. Scammers and cyber-criminals misuse the situation and create fake links for selling these tickets. One should be aware. Relevant provisions of Information Technology Act, 2000 and its rules are applicable.

Shadow customers

I know right! You must have also tried booking tickets from multiple devices to secure your slot. You may be a genuine fan and a genuine consumer in the eyes of law. On the other hand, laws will catch wrongdoers when multiple accounts, including fake accounts are used to book tickets in the name of anonymous users, using various IP addresses.

Surge Pricing

How much is too much for a concert ticket? I am not only speaking about Diljit or Coldplay concerts in India. Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Bad Bunny concerts worldwide cost too much. Surge pricing in India refers to a dynamic pricing model where prices increase based on higher demand. This practice is common in sectors like ride-hailing services (e.g., Uber, Ola), hospitality (hotels, flights), and e-commerce platforms. These markets are already under scrutiny of Competition Commission of India for surge pricing, anti-competitive agreements and abuse of dominant position. However, these online ticket sales for music concerts might be a new study.

Contractual Agreements and Goodwill

These ticket sales and fraud happening around it also affects the goodwill of the band and the artists. Artists should be careful while selecting ticketing partners, managers and branding partners and careful instructions should be given for doing business legally. Various laws in India monitor anti-profiteering. Profiteering in a profession as noble as music is evil. The bands also need to look into their agreements and adjustments.

This culture of ‘sold out’ and black marketing of tickets is ruining the music industry. It is exploitative, discriminatory and materialistic. They discourage the genuine fans of an artist/band and promote hatred in the music fraternity. This needs to be checked