According to Kommersant, the check is being conducted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs Directorate for the Petrogradsky District of St. Petersburg, and the materials after it are planned to be transferred to Moscow, where Say Agency is registered. There, the issue of whether there are grounds for a criminal case should be considered by the central apparatus of the Ministry of Internal Affairs; the agency itself has not publicly reported the check yet.
As The Insider writes, as of September 24 six lawsuits against the company had been registered in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Voronezh for a total of more than 1.4 million rubles. Three lawsuits were filed in Moscow, two in St. Petersburg, and one in Voronezh.
On September 28, a resident of Yakutsk demanded that the contract with Say Agency and Intickets be terminated and 108.9 thousand rubles be refunded for three tickets together with the service fee, but was refused. On September 29, another lawsuit was registered in St. Petersburg: the plaintiff is demanding the return of 34 thousand rubles for tickets, 5 thousand rubles in compensation for moral harm, and a fine, and Intickets refused him, citing promotional and non-refundable tickets.
Rospotrebnadzor issued Say Agency a warning in early September after complaints from buyers. The agency reviewed the offer and concluded that the condition that tickets bought on promotion are non-refundable contradicts consumer protection law; the company’s CEO Anna Subcheva said that Say Agency considers its actions lawful and had forwarded the claims to lawyers.
Two Kanye West concerts were announced at Gazprom Arena for October 10 and 11, tickets were sold from 9 thousand to 160 thousand rubles, and sales began on August 17. Say Agency claimed that in the first 24 hours it sold about 81 thousand tickets, and in two days more than 100 thousand.
On August 24, Gazprom Arena said that no stadium lease agreement had been concluded with Say Agency. The organizer, in turn, claimed that it had launched the advertising campaign and sales on the basis of the venue’s official letter and that the contract with the artist had been signed; in early September Say Agency published documents showing that the venue had allowed sales to begin on the condition of a subsequent lease agreement and prepayment. On September 4, the stadium stated that there were no concerts by foreign performers in the October calendar.
On September 29, the American agency Access Opera, linked to West’s world tour, confirmed the cancellation of the St. Petersburg concerts and recommended that buyers request refunds from Say Agency; by that time the Russian organizer had promised to announce on September 30 what would happen to the performances. According to Fontanka’s calculations, with the declared sales of more than 100 thousand tickets and an average price of about 26 thousand rubles, the nominal volume could amount to about 2.6 billion rubles, and the service fee of about 10% — another roughly 260 million rubles; under Say Agency’s published offer, it was not refundable even if the event was canceled.
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