Coronation concert ballot misleading, says regulator ASA

Lionel Richie and co performed inside the Windsor Castle grounds in front of 20,000 members of the public from across the UK

Communication over a ballot for tickets to May's Coronation Concert was misleading, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has said.

Lionel Richie and Katy Perry played at the concert organised by BBC Studios, with tickets allocated by Ticketmaster.

The ASA received 98 complaints from applicants who were unable to claim tickets for the event, despite having been congratulated on email.

BBC Studios accepted the email "was not well-worded", the regulator noted.

The televised Windsor Castle gig, which celebrated the coronation of King Charles III, featured performances from Take That, Nicole Scherzinger, Andrea Bocelli, Olly Murs and Paloma Faith.

Members of the public who received an email a month before the concert said they were disappointed after being given the impression they had won tickets, only to find they had all gone.

The email they received began: "Congratulations, you have been successful in the ballot for a pair of standing tickets to The Coronation Concert."

However, in order to secure the tickets, users had to click the link within the email and confirm their attendance. By the time many of those who received the email did so, they found the tickets had already gone.

Thousands posted angry messages on Twitter after the final pairs of tickets from the last of three ballots were issued on a first-come first-served basis.

The email had said lucky applicants had until 27 April to claim their tickets - but in practice the remaining tickets were claimed almost immediately.

Ticketmaster had previously said tickets in the first two rounds were guaranteed, "provided they claimed them within three weeks".

Unclaimed tickets were then released on a "first-come, first-served basis to those who had previously applied to the ballot and were unsuccessful", Ticketmaster said in a statement at the time. "These inevitably went very quickly."

But fans reacted angrily on Twitter, saying the email they received was far from clear.

On Wednesday, the ASA - the UK's independent advertising regulator, tasked with ensuring adverts across UK media stick to the rules and codes - said it had told both the BBC and Ticketmaster to "ensure that future marketing communications did not misleadingly imply that consumers had been allocated tickets if that was not the case."

"We also told them to ensure that future marketing communications did not omit relevant material information that tickets would be allocated on a first-come first-served basis."

A BBC spokesman said: "Although there was never any intention to mislead, we accept the ASA's ruling.

"Following two fully compliant ballots, a small number of unclaimed tickets were offered on a first come first served basis to unsuccessful ballot entrants.

"We also reiterate our apology for a poorly worded email, which implied applicants had already won tickets for The Coronation Concert.

"We have taken steps to ensure neither situation is repeated and can confirm that no successful ballot entrant from the first two rounds was denied the opportunity to attend the event."