Reynolds secures orders on Electric Picnic ticket discounts

Music promoter John Reynolds has secured orders requiring Ticketmaster to provide him with information about volume discounts paid on the sale of tickets for five Electric Picnic festivals up to 2013.

Mr Reynolds wants the documents for the hearing of his dispute with the companies operating the Electric Picnic concerning a series of issues relating to handling of the festival. The full hearing of the case is not expected to happen before next year.

Mr Justice Peter Charleton today ruled Mr Reynolds was entitled to non-party discovery of volue discount information from Ticketmaster concerning Eletric Picknic ticket sales over the five years between 2009 and 2013.

Mr Reynolds claims he was kept out of the volume discounting and lost out as a result. The judge heard his side estimated a sum of €450,000 was involved over the five Electric Picnics between 2009 and 2013 and Mr Reynolds claims the discount payments had a direct impact on the value of his shareholding.

His claims are denied and the discovery application was opposed by Rossa Fanning, for Festival Republic Dublin Ltd (FRD), against whom Mr Reynolds has brought his proceedings under Section 205 of the Companies Acts.

Earlier, Martin Hayden SC, for Mr Reynolds, said Ticketmaster had argued the material sought would impose a burden on it and its staff would have to go through "endless boxes".

Ticketmaster must have a computer with this data and it could not be seriously suggested it was not able to provide information on what was paid from Electric Picnic tickets sales for the years in question, counsel said.

In his action, Mr Reynolds has alleged a refusal to allow him operate the festival as envisaged and he claims that alleged refusal is causing considerable hardship and risk to POD Music Ltd. FRD had in 2009 bought for €4.2m a 71 per cent stake in EP Festivals Ltd, a subsidiary of POD Music.

Mr Reynolds alleges management decisions made by Melvin Benn of FRD relating to the 2012 and 2013 festivals were damaging to POD Music Ltd, the 100 per cent shareholder of EP Republic Ltd, but were to the benefit of the FRD Group.

In opposing the claims, FRD alleges Mr Reynolds had been engaging in a deliberately obstructive pattern of behaviour and was seeking to have his shares bought out at “grossly inflated prices”.

It denies Mr Reynolds has been excluded from managing the Picnic or that the FRD Group's controlling companies, Live Nation and Gaiety Investments, merely want to make the Picnic part of their stable of festivals and outdoor events.