I see this as a lose-lose situation for the Jovi camp. The choices are:

1) Announce that Richie is not comming to Europe and make the ticket sales even stronger, plus causing a lot of people returning them. The effect of this things would be much stronger than it is in US, due to more people giving a damn about Richie. And when it turns out that he actually comes back, they will have lost a month-worth of ticket sales and some people who got refunds deciding not to go anyway, cause "hey I just got 100 euros, I should probably keep them in my pocket".
2) Say that Richie will be back for Europe, which would be viewed as direct "FU" to Americans, with Richie carefully planning his "break" on the North American leg for a second tour in a row, just to make sure he's back for Europe, his top priority.

Hence, they're trying the same strategy as they did in 2011. The difference is that Richie decided not to reveal the reasion for his absence (probablue due to being embarassed to go back to rehab again), which really traps the PR team in the corner and makes the situation much worse IMO.