An investigation was opened at the end of August into suspicions of illicit resale of tickets for the 2023 Rugby World Cup, the opening match of which takes place Friday evening in Seine-Saint-Denis, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Friday, requested by the AFP. The brigade for the repression of economic crime (BRDE) was seized, said the public prosecutor. These investigations follow a complaint filed on August 17 in Paris by the organizing committee of the 2023 Rugby World Cup, which accuses an individual of having “set up a structured system” of illicit resale of tickets, ‘after the complaint seen by AFP.
The public interest group (GIP) France 2023 markets all tickets giving access to the 48 matches of the World Cup, which begins Friday evening and runs until October 28. But on July 20, the GIP ticketing service noticed that a person was purchasing 150 seats “with different credit cards,” relates the complaint. The GIP accuses him of having then “put in place a structured system” (in particular via a summary table of dates, unit prices, payment by transfer or Paypal, etc.) in order to resell the tickets with a substantial margin : a place at 170 euros is thus offered for resale for “1,000 euros”.
In a civil judgment rendered on July 6 in another case of resale of tickets for the 2023 World Cup, the Paris court recalled that the GIP monopoly was aimed at “protection against the increase in the cost of tickets resulting from their resale” and “the security of the event by controlling the identity of spectators”.