The organizing committee for the 2023 Rugby World Cup filed a complaint Thursday in Paris against a man whom it accuses of having “established a structured system” for the illicit resale of tickets, AFP learned on Friday from source close to the case.
The France 2023 public interest group (GIP) sells all the tickets giving access to the 48 matches of the World Cup. A competition, which will be held from September 8 to October 28 in France, and will be sold out.
The facts date back to July 20. That day, 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 “put in place a structured system” (via in particular a summary table of dates, unit price, payment by bank transfer or Paypal, etc.) in order to resell the tickets with a large margin. A seat bought for 170 euros would thus have been offered for resale for “1,000 euros”, underlines the complaint.
⌛ It’s getting closer!
Who are you most looking forward to seeing at Rugby World Cup France 2023?
—
⌛ It’s getting closer!Who are you most looking forward to seeing at #RWC2023? pic.twitter.com/ntRsDeAaSV
— Rugby World Cup France 2023 (@France2023) June 1, 2023
“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.
Two resale companies already sentenced to civil proceedings
On July 6, the ticket resale companies Viagogo Entertainment Inc and Viagogo AG, based respectively in the United States and Switzerland, were ordered in civil proceedings to pay the sum of 300,000 euros, in particular for having sold, without authorization, tickets of the 2023 World Cup.
In its judgment of which AFP was aware, the Paris court recalled that the monopoly enjoyed by the GIP aims “to protect against the increase in the cost of tickets resulting from their resale” and “to ensure the security of the event by control of the identity of the spectators”.
At the beginning of the year, Le Parisien had revealed that several hundred tickets had been discreetly “diverted” from the traditional sales system to be sold irregularly for the benefit in particular of a close friend of the former director general of the organizing committee. , Claude Atcher. A case in which the former international Sébastien Chabal was also involved.
