E-bay demands ticket resellers donate 20% of sale price to charity event

There are several remarkable events are going on today to celebrate Earth Day. But the issue of global warming is going to get even more attention in the next several months leading up to Live Earth concerts on July 7th.

Live Earth will bring together more than 150 of the world's top musicians for 24-hours of music from 7 concerts across all 7 continents. Live Earth will bring together an audience of more than 2 billion at the concerts and through television, radio, film, and the Internet. That audience, and the proceeds from the event, will create the foundation for a new, multi-year global effort to combat the climate crisis led by Vice President Al Gore. Kevin Wall, Worldwide Executive Producer of Live 8, is producing Live Earth.

Tickets went on sale this past Monday and the demand was huge. The Wembley Live Earth concert had some 203,000 fans registered for the 60,000-odd tickets.

It did not take long for tickets to go up on eBay for 5 or 6 times the face price. On Thursday, eBay confirmed it will carry tickets for the UK and US Live Earth concerts, however they will impose a mandatory requirement that 20% of the price be donated to charity.

An eBay spokesman told the BBC:

"Although the charity will have benefited from the original sale of the ticket, we think it makes sense to use our charity fundraising programme to ensure that good causes benefit from the resale of any spare tickets on the site.

As a result, users who decide to resell their tickets will be required to donate at least 20% of the final sale price to good causes through our charity fundraising platform."

In 2005 eBay banned Live 8 tickets, after organizer Bob Geldof called the attempted sale of the free tickets "sick profiteering".