Turkish Megadeth Case Delayed

Megadeth can resign itself to waiting until September before it’ll know if it’s likely to pick up the balance of fees owed to the band by Rock Istanbul Festival.

"It seems that we are coming to the end," Savas Inandioglu, acting on behalf of the U.S. rockers, told Pollstar after last month’s hearing at the Seventh Asliye Ticaret Mahkemesi (Tribunal Of Commerce) collected the last pieces of evidence needed to settle the case.

The case has dragged through the Istanbul courts since the 2005 staging of the festival, when promoter Boray Dundar was unable to pay the act the balance of fees due on the day.

Dundar’s company has since gone bust and the legal issue is whether TicketTurk, the country’s second-largest ticket seller (and believed to be the subject of interest from Germany’s CTS Eventim) is obliged to stump up on his behalf.

The act believes the ticket seller is "irrevocably and unconditionally" responsible for the debt, a view supported by Charmenko – the Istanbul-based agent that booked the band for the festival.

Eckmecki & Karakus, TicketTurk’s lawyers, say a written undertaking to pay – signed by the ticketing company’s managing director Gulseren Onanc – isn’t valid.

Last October, the company sent Pollstar a letter saying there’s no agreement between its client and the act and "no current written undertakings that can be acceptable as legal and binding for Turkish law."

Another delay, which has stalled the action by about six months, was caused by Eckmecki & Karakus telling the court that Inandioglu (a partner in Topdemir & Inandioglu) has the same case going through the legal system twice.

Inandioglu has now put papers before the court to show the other actions mentioned are not directly connected with the Megadeth case.

There was an enforcement order the courted granted against Dundar on behalf of Charmenko for US$68,000 for commission owed and reimbursement of some performance fees the agency paid on the festival’s behalf, although company booker Nick Hobbs concedes "there’s nothing to enforce it against."

There’s another case against TicketTurk that Inandioglu’s bringing on behalf of Garbage, another U.S. rock band claiming the ticketing company is liable for its balance fees for the same Rock Istanbul 2005 Festival.

TicketTurk is co-owned by Tickets.com, the US NASDAQ-listed ticketer, and CRM Solutions, the telecommunications and software giant.

It has about a 20 percent share of the market, compared with the 80 percent held by the Ticketmaster-owned Biletix, and was known to bankroll Dundar because his company was its only client in the contemporary live music business.