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."
