Ahead of Rugby World Cup 2019's kickoff next Friday, a flurry of problems involving tickets purchased through unofficial reselling websites have emerged. As of the end of August, consumer affairs centers across the country had received about 850 inquiries and complaints from people who had bought tickets through such websites and other avenues. The tournament's organizing committee has publicly named several overseas ticket reselling websites, and warns that tickets purchased through unauthorized websites will not be valid for admission to a match.
Last month, a rugby fan in his 50s living in northern Japan found an advertisement on social media that caught his eye. "World Cup tickets are still available," trumpeted the ad for an overseas website. The man purchased a ticket for about 20,000 yen. However, he later learned that admission would be denied to anybody who had purchased an unofficially resold ticket. He tried to cancel his purchase, but was unable to do so.
According to the National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan, there have been complaints and inquiries about ticket reselling websites since general ticket sales started in September 2018. One purchaser complained, "I paid 500,000 yen for six tickets. That's a rip-off."
Many complaints came from people who mistakenly purchased tickets from websites that appeared above the official website when they were looking for World Cup tickets on search engines, and from people who hastily bought tickets because the website displayed a ticking clock showing the number of seconds left to make a purchase. In many cases, ticket purchases could not be canceled. Recently, the center has received a growing number of complaints from people saying their tickets "have not arrived."
According to the organizing committee, a combined total of about 1.8 million tickets to the tournament's 48 matches were available through the official website. As of last month, about 1.64 million tickets had been sold. The ticketing terms and conditions stipulate that the purchase or sale of tickets on an unauthorized site is prohibited. Tickets that are no longer needed can be transferred to another person, at face value, only through the resale service on the official website.
The purchaser's name is printed on the tickets to help prevent tickets from being resold. At the stadium, organizing committee officials may confirm the ticket holder's identity by checking their driver's license or other identification. If a ticket is found to have been unofficially resold, the bearer could be refused entry.
The committee regularly checks ticket reselling websites and other forums where tickets might be resold. If the committee finds Rugby World Cup tickets are being offered for sale, it asks the website operator to remove the listing. The official website contains a list of five overseas websites that continue to handle ticket resales, and urges people wanting to buy tickets not to use these websites.
The Yomiuri Shimbun contacted these five websites and asked how they dealt with problems involving tickets. Two websites replied that if a problem arose, they would find a replacement ticket or provide a refund. The other three websites did not provide a response before this article went to print.
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