The man is said to have “established a structured system”. He is accused by the 2023 Rugby World Cup Organizing Committee of unlawful resale of tickets. A complaint has been filed, AFP learned on Friday from a source familiar with the matter.
The France 2023 public interest group (GIP) sells all the tickets giving access to the 48 matches of the World Cup, which will be held from September 8 to October 28 in France.
But on July 20, the GIP ticketing service noticed that a person was buying 150 seats “with different credit cards”, relates the complaint consulted by AFP.
The GIP accuses him of having then “implemented a structured system” (via in particular a summary table of dates, unit price, payment by bank transfer or Paypal…) in order to resell the tickets with a substantial margin : a place at 170 euros is thus offered for resale for “1,000 euros”, underlines the complaint.
“This case may seem modest, with 150 places, but we want to draw attention to the rule which is that of the uniqueness of the place to buy the places for the individual and the prohibition to make a profit”, explained to AFP the lawyer of the GIP, Me Philippe Vouland.
“It is a question of general security and the GIP will take all useful actions as it has done in civil matters with my colleague Me Fabienne Fajgenbaum”, he continued.
On July 6, the ticket resale companies Viagogo Entertainment Inc and Viagogo AG, based respectively in the United States and Switzerland, were sentenced in civil proceedings to pay the sum of 300,000 euros, in particular for having sold, without authorization, tickets from the World-2023.
In its judgment of which AFP was aware, the Paris court recalled that the monopoly enjoyed by the GIP is aimed at “protection against the increase in the cost of tickets resulting from their resale” and “the security of the event by the control of the identity of the spectators”.
