The European consumer organization Euroconsumers and the Football Supporters Europe fan alliance have lodged a complaint with the European Commission against FIFA due to high World Cup ticket prices.
FIFA is abusing its monopoly position to impose excessive prices and unfair conditions on fans, it said in a press release. “FIFA has a complete monopoly on World Cup ticket sales”said Romane Armangau, spokesperson for Euroconsumers.
“It uses this market power to charge prices that would not exist in a normal competitive market, while at the same time withholding information from buyers and pushing them to make hasty decisions.” A commission spokeswoman confirmed that the complaint had been received.
FIFA uses “Dynamic Pricing”
The pricing structure for the tournament is not transparent; FIFA uses the “dynamic pricing” principle, in which the price is based on demand. This means fans can pay different prices on the same seats in the same round. In addition, the prices are significantly higher than recently. For the German group game against Curacao there are a few tickets for 60 US dollars, after which it quickly goes up to 500 US dollars. At the World Cup final, there should be regular prices away from the VIP areas up to 9,000 US dollars at the start of sales.
Infantino had defended the high prices and pointed out that the income generated from them would benefit football. FIFA expects revenue from tickets and VIP packages to triple compared to the World Cup in Qatar. However, the number of games due to the new mode with 48 teams only increases by 70 percent.
Further points of criticism are the pricing policy for fans with disabilities and the treatment of fans who get their tickets through the associations, such as the national team fan club in Germany. These fans were initially excluded from the $60 tickets, but FIFA only relented after widespread criticism. Now there are a few hundred tickets available per team per game for $60.
Despite all the criticism, demand is high. According to FIFA, there were a total of more than half a billion ticket requests. That doesn’t mean half a billion people want to go to the World Cup, but it does show a lot of interest.
Uncapped resale possible
In addition, ticket holders can resell their tickets at any price. FIFA has set up a platform for this itself. Anyone who has a $60 ticket for the final can, with the support of FIFA, resell it for $10,000 on the world association’s platform – you just have to find a buyer.
“FIFA claims this is to prevent the black market”said Martin Endemann from Football Supporters Europe on the WDR podcast “Sport inside”. “But in reality it is just creating its own legalized black market. We assume that a large proportion of the World Cup tickets were bought by bootleggers in order to resell them legally on the FIFA platform at a price that is completely arbitrary.”
FIFA argues that such a “secondary market” is legal in the US and that its platform is a safe way to buy and sell tickets. FIFA earns twice as much: it deducts 15 percent of the proceeds from the seller and adds 15 percent to the buyer.
Complaint now under review
The EU Commission announced that the complaint will now be examined according to the usual procedures. If the audit reveals a violation of competition law, the commission can ask those affected – in this case FIFA – to put an end to the violation and also set certain requirements for this. There is no time limit for the exam.
