Thousands of tickets to next year’s Rugby World Cup have appeared on sale on ticket reselling sites – despite having not been released for sale.
Some of the tickets were described as “speculative”, meaning would-be sellers had put them on sale in the hope they would be able to buy them and sell them on.
More than 4,000 tickets, 900 of which were described as speculative, were discovered for sale on StubHub and viagogo, BBC consumer investigations program Watchdog said last night
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This was despite the first batch of tickets, which includes matches in Wales, not going on sale until 1pm today. Tickets go on general sale to the public later this year.
The tickets were priced from £1,000-£9,000 – more than 20 times their face value.
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Watchdog reported to have found one seller who claimed to have tickets for the final at Twickenham in the north upper tier, but organisers have not allocated any seats for those matches.
There is nothing illegal about reselling tickets, or allowing tickets to be resold.
But for the London 2012 Olympics a one-off law was introduced that made it illegal to resell tickets.
Despite requests, the Government refused to introduce it again for the Rugby World Cup, saying it was part of a free market.
It is also possible that certain groups – like sponsors, corporations, debenture holders or “VIPs” are allocated tickets well before they go on sale to the general public.
In a statement, StubHub said: “StubHub! believes that speculative selling – where the seller could not possibly have obtained tickets by any means, eg through fan clubs, sports club membership, hospitality, debentures or any other means – is an unfortunate aspect of the industry and a practice which is against our terms and conditions.
“We thank Watchdog for bringing the sale of these particular tickets for the Rugby World Cup 2015 to our attention.
“We have spoken with the sellers concerned and would not define this as an example of speculative selling.
“These sellers – like all those on our site – have been carefully vetted and given their solid track record, we would fully expect them to be able to provide the tickets listed by category and zone.
“That said, the trust of our customers is a priority. We have therefore withdrawn these seller listings until the official ticket sale for the Rugby World Cup 2015 begins.
“To reiterate, in very rare cases where something goes wrong and we cannot find a replacement ticket of comparable value, fans are backed by our Fan Protect Guarantee, which entitles them to a full refund.”
A viagogo statement said: “Remember, viagogo guarantees every ticket, so it would be foolish and pointless for a seller to speculate and list a ticket that he could not fulfill.
“Our quality control process had already identified those tickets as being incorrectly listed, and they have been removed from the website.
“Most premiere events such as the Rugby World Cup pre-allocate tickets to many groups – sponsors, VIPs, corporations, debenture holders, travel/package companies and others – well before tickets go on sale to the general public.
“Thus, many sellers already know what tickets they are going to receive and can list tickets for sale on viagogo long before they have been offered for sale to the general public.
“That means, if a consumer is not a sponsor or VIP, he can still get access to Rugby World Cup tickets from viagogo and can buy with confidence, knowing that his purchase is guaranteed.”
The Association of Chief Police Officers believes organised criminal gangs are not at work in the secondary ticketing markets and wants to see the law changed.
Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/24412491
Rugby World Cup tickets: Seats being sold for up to £9000 despite only going ...
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