The concert, which will take place in London on 2nd July, is one of a series of free worldwide charity concerts designed to encourage G8 leaders, meeting in Scotland on 6–9 July, to adopt a package of measures aimed at tackling poverty in the developing world.
"The people who are selling these tickets on web sites are miserable wretches who are capitalising on people's misery," celebrity activist Bob Geldof stormed yesterday. “I am appealing to their sense of decency to stop this disgusting greed.”
He called for eBay to block the sales, and for customers of the on-line auction house to submit outrageous bids for the tickets in order to register their protest.
His disgust was echoed by Broadcasting and Music Minister James Purnell, who wrote to eBay, asking that the sales be banned.
Initially eBay executives refused to comply, arguing, according to reports, that “eBay believes it is a fundamental right for someone to be able to sell something that is theirs whether they paid for it or won it in a competition. We live in a free market where people can make up their own minds about what they would like to buy and sell.”
The company offered to donate any profits received from the sales to Live 8 – an offer swiftly rejected by Geldof.
Eventually, however, the level of protest forced eBay to back down. According to eBay’s managing Director Doug McCallum:
“The bottom line is that we've listened carefully to our customers over the last few days. Overwhelmingly the voice is that they would like us to take down the listing so we are going to do our best to do that."
Geldof welcomed the news.
“It was a sort of example of corporate arrogance that it thought it could operate outside the morality of its audience,” he told Sky News. “I am glad it's stopped and well done for taking them down but it was despicable and they should have thought about it before they did this."
