With less than a month to go until the Rugby World Cup the Labour party has accused the government of "failing fans" by "refusing to ban ticket resale and unveiled research showing prices on the secondary market have soared" to more than 40 times face value, according to Owen Gibson of the London GUARDIAN. Pointing to prices of more than £11,800 ($18,500) for a pair of tickets to England vs. Wales and £20,252 ($31,800) for a pair for the final, Shadow Culture Secretary Chris Bryant said that fans were being "ripped off left, right and center." England Rugby 2015 "lobbied with no success" for legislation to outlaw resale except through official channels, as was the case for the Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games. The new Consumer Rights Act contains a clause that forced secondary sites to "display detailed ticket information and allowed governing bodies to cancel tickets" if they felt they were being sold in breach of terms and conditions. But Bryant said that the "limited provisions" in the Act, used by the England & Wales Cricket Board to monitor ticket sales during the Ashes, were "insufficient to discourage tickets being resold on an industrial scale" because the maximum penalty is only £5,000 ($7,800). Bryant wants to see the resale of sporting tickets for major events "outlawed, as in Australia." A spokesperson for Viagogo said that the Rugby World Cup was "the most popular event it had ever seen on the platform and defended its business model." He said, "It is perfectly legal to resell a rugby ticket if you want to. We believe once you've bought something, whether that's a house, a car, or a ticket, it's up to you what you do with it and you should be allowed to resell it at whatever the market value is" (GUARDIAN, 8/24).
