MALAYSIA— “I got the tickets, you dont :p” This is just one example of a ticket scalper shamelessly flaunting Coldplay concert tickets on an online marketplace.
The renowned band Coldplay is scheduled to perform a concert at the National Stadium Bukit Jalil in Kuala Lumpur on 22 November this year.
The concert will be part of Coldplay’s ‘Music of the Spheres World Tour,’ during which the British band pledged to plant one tree for every ticket sold.
The concert tickets sold out as soon as they went on sale on Wednesday (17 May).
If fans were simply losing out to other fans, there wouldn’t be much to complain about. However, Malaysian fans were outraged as online platforms showcased tickets being resold at prices exceeding double the original value!
Organised by Live Nation, the concert ticket went on sale starting from 10am on Wednesday. CIMB bank cardholders were given exclusive presale access one day earlier.
The ticket sale was highly competitive, and the organizer had to announce at 1 pm, three hours later, that all Coldplay concert tickets for Malaysia were officially sold out.
However, shortly after, several advertisements for resale tickets started appearing on social media and online marketplaces such as Carousell and Mudah.my.
Upon checking Carousell, it was found that some of the resale tickets were being sold at prices ranging from RM500 to RM20,000 (approximately 4,418 USD).
For instance, one seller was offering a CAT 7 Coldplay ticket for RM750, despite its original price being only RM228.
A search on Mudah.my unveiled sellers advertising tickets with price tags ranging from RM650 to RM3,082.
Another seller had set a starting bid of RM1,000 for a CAT 2 ticket, which eventually reached a price of RM1,350.
The original price for a concert seat in the same category was RM758.
Netizen urged the organiser to take action against ticket scalpers
One netizen expressed her frustration online, urging the organizer to take action against ticket scalpers and ticketing services.
The netizen highlighted the unfairness faced by dedicated Coldplay fans like themselves, who patiently waited in long queues, only to be pushed back to the start when their turn came, or to find no available seats, or even to be abruptly kicked out of the website during the payment process.
The netizen suspected that these resellers were probably using scalper bots to hog all the tickets. At the same time, the organiser noted that only one card transaction with a maximum of four tickets is allowed.
“Do you think its really fair? Resellers and Ticketing services are getting x27 or x 40 tickets at one shot, how is this fair for fans that waited for hours patiently? ”
Organiser warns against ticket resale
According to Live Nation, the concert organizer, they explicitly stated that the purchased concert tickets are intended for personal use only. Reselling the tickets at face value or above face value, including through online auction sites, is strictly prohibited.
“If a ticket is sold or used in breach of this condition, the ticket may be cancelled without a refund and the ticket holder may be refused admission, ” stated Live Nation in their FAQ section on official website.
In Malaysia, although there is no specific legislation targeting ticket scalping, consumers still have the option to pursue civil action if they encounter exorbitant and unreasonable pricing for tickets.
In 2017, the event organizer for the Ed Sheeran concert implemented various measures to address the issue of ticket scalping—one of these measures involved identifying suspicious transactions and adding them to a blacklist.
If it is discovered that these tickets are being resold, the barcode associated with the ticket will be deactivated.
