Geldof calls for eBay boycott

SIR BOB Geldof reacted with anger today as touts began selling Live8 tickets for thousands of pounds on eBay.

Calling for a worldwide boycott of the auction site, Geldof said he was considering legal action to stop the 'sick profiteering'.

'I am sick with this,' he said. 'It is a f***ing disgrace. It is completely against the interests of the poor. The people who are selling it are wretches. But far worse is the corporate culture which capitalises on people's misery.'

Geldof immediately contacted eBay - branding the site an 'electronic pimp' - and asked it to halt the ticket sales but was refused. Instead, it offered to donate about £1 - the listing fee - for each pair of tickets sold.

But Geldof said: 'We don't want their money. We want them to stop this sick trading. It is certainly not in the spirit of the event and they should be ashamed of themselves.'

More than two million texts were sent in to the lottery for pairs of the 150,000 tickets for the 2 July Hyde Park concert. Winners are informed by text message.

The event, which is aimed at pressuring the richest countries to cut world debt and increase aid to Africa, will see a host of stars performing at concerts around the globe. Some of the top music acts in the world - including U2, Madonna and REM - will take part.

By this morning tickets were being sold on eBay for up to £2,000. Angry fans and supporters of the Live8 initiative are now trying to block attempts to cash in on the charity event by entering spurious £1m bids for the tickets.

Geldof said: 'What eBay are doing is profiteering on the backs of the impoverished. It is a complete disgrace - they should consider who this is all for and what this is all about. Nobody should buy these tickets. It doesn't matter if people sell them for 1p or £1,000. If someone doesn't want them they should give them away.'

Geldof said he had been advised to wait until 1,000 ticket offers had been made on the website before launching legal action in the High Court to force eBay to remove them. EBay initially promised to prevent the sales but admitted it was powerless when the first ticket adverts were posted.

A spokesman said: 'As we do not wish to profit from this event, we have offered to make a donation to the Live8 organisers at least equivalent to the fees we collect from the sale of Live8 tickets.'

Tony Northcott, a spokesman for the Trading Standards Institute, warned that some of the online tickets could be counterfeit. The text lottery has raised about £3m for Live8.