games at the Rugby World Cup – despite being named at the top of a hitlist of banned sellers by tournament organisers.
For Scotland’s opening match against Ireland in Yokohama on Sunday, we found one trader on Viagogo listing six Category D tickets for £363 each.
Their face value is €85. Instead of adding the correct face value, the seller inserted £7000.
For the match against Japan in Yokohama on October 13, we found a trader listing €85 tickets for £320 – more than four times face value.
The tout was listed as “TCS”, with no address or phone number, and there were no seat numbers listed, which would enable the organisers to cancel the touted tickets.
On the Rugby World Cup (RWC) site, organisers state: “Please be reminded that none of the tickets purchased via the following websites shall be deemed valid or useable under any circumstances.”
They list Viagogo along with StubHub, SeatGeek, LiveRugbyTickets.co.uk and Rugby Ticket Service.
RWC has also established a face value resale service for fans who can no longer make it to matches.
Anti-tout campaigners last night slammed the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for abandoning its court action against the notorious secondary seller after declaring Viagogo has cleaned up its act.
The Record can reveal that the listings potentially break several consumer laws – failing to properly identify professional touts or stipulate seat numbers.
It also fails to identify conditions on some tickets that might affect the sale – notably that they can’t be resold, which breaches the Consumer Rights Act.
Investigator Reg Walker condemned the CMA. He said: “We have now had four years of investigation and £2million of taxpayers’ cash spent. But despite tens of thousands of victims of Viagogo, there hasn’t been a single prosecution of the site or the touts that use it.”
Campaigner Adam Webb, of FanFair Alliance, said: “Even with all this pressure, Viagogo still appear to be operating in breach of the law. It’s crazy. Given the history of this controversial company, I simply can’t understand why the CMA would take that pressure off now.”
The CMA said: “We haven’t ruled out future action if we have evidence of problems recurring or if other issues are identified. There’ll be a thorough, independent review of Viagogo’s compliance with our court order next month.”
Viagogo claims it isn’t responsible for sellers giving false company details.
