The rugby World Cup has been hit by a ticket scalping "scandal" that includes claims a pair of tickets to the final at Twickenham sold for nearly $50,000.
A UK MP, Chris Bryant, claimed that fans were being "ripped off left, right and centre" after his office made a detailed examination of prices for tickets in the so-called pool of death which features England, Wales, Australia and Fiji.
A Guardian report says that English rugby lobbied unsuccessfully for legislation to ban resale of tickets except through official channels, as occurred for the Olympic and Commonwealth Games. New Consumer legislation allows governing bodies to cancel tickets sold in breach of terms and conditions. Bryant said the maximum penalty of $12,000 was not enough to deter major scalping though.
He said a pair of tickets for the clash between England and Wales sold for $28,000, and the price reached $49,000 for the final.
Bryant said: "It is a scandal that the government is allowing fans to be charged 40 times the face value of a ticket with nothing going to the grassroots games, the players or the stadia. The money just goes into the pockets of parasitical rip-off merchants."
The report said secondary marketplace sites such as Viagogo and Seatwave complied with the law and those companies argued that they provided a valuable exchange service. A Viagogo spokesman said the rugby World Cup was the most popular event ever on its platform.
"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,"he said.
The tournament organisers say 90 per cent of the 2.4m tickets are sold, and predict every game will be a sell out.