EBay withdraws tickets for Live 8 concert at Geldof's request

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://www.salon.com/tech/wire/2005/06/14/ebay/index.html

June 14, 2005 | London -- The Internet auction site eBay will withdraw tickets for the London Live 8 concert from sale, a company official said Tuesday, after organizer Bob Geldof said the sale was despicable. The concert was organized to highlight poverty in Africa, and the tickets are free.

More than 100 pairs of tickets, however, began appearing earlier Tuesday on the eBay auction site at high prices. Some attracted bids of up to 1,000 pounds ($1,800), prompting Geldof to call for a boycott of eBay Inc. "The people who are selling these tickets on Web sites are miserable wretches who are capitalizing on people's misery," the musician said.

Later Tuesday, eBay Managing Director Doug McCallum said the company would take the tickets off its auction site, although the company said reselling charity concert tickets was not illegal in Britain. We've listened carefully to our customers," McCallum told Britain's ITV television. "Overwhelmingly the voice is that they would like us to take down the listing."

Geldof said he was glad eBay was removing the tickets from auction. "Well done for taking them down," Geldof told Sky News. "But it was despicable, and they should have thought about it before they did this."