The key facts

  • The court ordered Say Agency to pay 83.4 thousand rubles: tickets, service fee, moral damages, and a fine
  • The judge denied the claim against the ticket operator Intickets
  • As of October 29, 45 consumer protection lawsuits had been filed against the organizer

First ruling on the lawsuits over the cancelled concerts

A magistrate judge in Moscow ordered the organizer of Kanye West's cancelled concert in St. Petersburg — the company Say Agency — to pay more than 83,400 rubles to a resident of the capital. TASS reports this, citing a publication by Gazeta.Ru. The amount includes 66,000 rubles for the tickets, 6,600 rubles for the service fee, 5,000 rubles in moral damages compensation, and a 5,800-ruble fine.

The defendants and the scale of the disputes

The plaintiff also sought to recover funds from the second defendant — the ticket-selling company Intickets — but the judge denied that part of the claim. This ruling matters given the overall number of complaints: according to the counterparty verification service Rusprofile, cited by the outlet, as of October 29, 45 consumer protection lawsuits had been filed against the organizer of West's concerts, with both companies — Say Agency and Intickets — named as defendants. Thus, the ruling issued so far concerns only one of the many lawsuits and does not mean that similar claims against the ticket operator will be granted automatically.

How the concerts were cancelled

The conflict began in early August, when Say Agency announced two Kanye West concerts at Gazprom Arena on October 10 and 11. The stadium administration, which had been the first to announce the concerts on its social media, then stated that it had no lease agreement with the agency and that ticket sales had begun without the necessary documents. The organizers, for their part, claimed that the announcement had been coordinated with the venue, the contract with the artist had been signed, and an advance payment had been made. On September 30, Say Agency officially confirmed the cancellation of the performances — a few days after the artist's team made its statement.

Related proceedings

In addition to the consumer lawsuits, the football club Zenit, which owns Gazprom Arena, has also been drawn into the litigationover the failed concerts — Gazeta.Ru reported this earlier. How the dispute with the club and the remaining 45 consumer lawsuits will be resolved is not disclosed by sources at this time.