The big-ticket game of music concerts: A legal perspective

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. The 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 differ. 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'
The Instagram stories, telegram chats, and other mediums suggest 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 middlemen 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.

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In these ticketing episodes, there are serious concerns that law enforcement agencies should look into. The ‘sold out' tickets do 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 favourite 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 the 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 the 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, and 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 hospitality (hotels, flights), and e-commerce platforms. These markets are already under scrutiny by the 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.

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Contractual Agreements and Goodwill
These ticket sales and fraud happening around it also affect 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.

Women's safety and law & order concerns
On 28th March 2023, the Indraprastha College for Women (IPCW) saw a stampede-like situation where multiple college girls were groped and sexually harassed. There were no additional security arrangements to stop the boys from other colleges who climbed up the walls and entered the premises from all sides. On 26th November 2023, four students lost their lives and 60 sustained injuries during a music concert at CUSAT University in Kerala, due to a stampede. Even at IIT Delhi's annual cultural festival "Rendezvous", Guru Randhawa cancelled his concert last year due to a stampede and heavy crowd. There are innumerable incidents in which people are injured, and women are sexually harassed and yet there are no steps taken by the State Police to check the arrangements beforehand. Therefore, whether it is the upcoming Diljit's concert or that of Coldplay, the state governments in the respective states should take charge of the security arrangements. CCTV cameras must be installed at the entry, exit and all important corners of the concert. Apart from this, police officers should be stationed at the place of the concert.

Many brands are also taking advantage of these booking bonanzas, and offering ‘free tickets of XYZ concert' on sale of their products, etc. This is not per se illegal but manipulative.

These legal issues need to be addressed as we stay excited about our favourite music concerts and band performances. Local authorities must check law and order, and relevant regulators should check for violations of contract law, consumer law, cyber law, criminal law and other laws as applicable. 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.

'Ritwik Mehta is the founder of Niti Tantra and a political strategist '
'Aditya Trivedi is Advocate at Delhi High court

The views expressed here are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper.