TicketTurk Loses Again

The Istanbul lawyer representing rock acts Megadeth and Garbage has already won three court battles against one of the country’s major ticket companies, but he’s far from confident that he won’t have to fight another one.

Savas Inandioglu of Topdemir & Inandioglu, who is trying to recover the balance of fees the bands are owed for their appearances at Rock Istanbul 2005, believes TicketTurk – which undertook to pay the money and then reneged – won’t give up before exhausting the Turkish legal process.

The Istanbul commercial court ruled Feb. 3 that TicketTurk is responsible for paying the balance of Garbage’s fee. The ticket company was also ordered to pay the accrued interest, costs and a 40 percent levy for acting in bad faith.

TicketTurk made undertakings to pay the balance of fees – both apparently written and signed by managing director Gulseren Onanc – when Rock Istanbul 2005 was on the brink of financial collapse.

However, when the Istanbul-based Charmenko agency tried to collect the money, TicketTurk’s lawyers said the undertakings weren’t valid under Turkish law. Charmenko put Megadeth and Garbage on the bill.

Inandioglu said he believes TicketTurk will appeal the commercial court’s ruling on Garbage, although it has already lost an appeal against a similar commercial court decision on Megadeth.

The Megadeth case was in the commercial court December 2007, and the TicketTurk appeal against its findings was tossed out of the Appeal Court in Ankara a month ago.

Neither Onanc nor the ticket company’s lawyers at Eckmecki & Karakus have responded to Pollstar questions since the commercial ruling on Megadeth in 2007.

TicketTurk, which is the country’s largest ticket company behind the Ticketmaster-owned Billetix, was once reportedly an acquisition target for German entertainment giant CTS Eventim.