Live Nation did not break the law in its sale of tickets for last year’s U2 concerts in Italy, a court in Rome has ruled.
Live Nation and its resale divisions were last June banned from reselling tickets for the concerts after a complaint from the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers (SIAE) music industry group.
At the time SIAE said it filed the petition “to protect both the rights of its members and consumers who find themselves also paying up to 10 times more than the entry ticket on the parallel market”. TicketOne was the official vendor of tickets for the U2 Joshua Tree tour.
However, the Civil Court of Rome this week ruled that there was no wrongdoing on the sale of tickets for the U2 show last year, and completely exonerated Live Nation from the charges made by SIAE.
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The court found that no illegal actions took place, and that the reselling at inflated prices was caused by demand outstripping supply.
The court ruling said: “It is entirely probable that fans rushed to purchase tickets at the time of the opening of the sale. Ordinary consumers can buy more tickets than they need, and they know they can resell at a higher price.”
It also pointed out that the number of tickets being resold was “far from significant compared to the size of the events”.
Codacons, a consumer action group, was disappointed with the result and noted that the Rome ruling differed from those delivered by the Antitrust and the Milan prosecutors.
Last January, TheTicketingBusiness reported that TicketOne cancelled more than 200 “suspicious” transactions as it fought to prevent the scalping of tickets for the U2 gigs.
IMAGE: U2start
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