Organisers of the 2019 Cricket World Cup said they are prepared to take legal action against Viagogo and StubHub, with some tickets being sold for 104 times their face value.
Two tickets have been listed for over £12,000 (€13,600/$15,488) for the England v Australia game at Lord’s, with a face value of £115.
The 2019 Cricket World Cup takes place in England and Wales from 30 May to 14 July.
“We are working closely with lawyers to identify secondary ticket sites which infringe our terms and conditions,” a World Cup spokesperson told the BBC.
“We are taking appropriate enforcement action against them as required.”
While it is not illegal to resell tickets to international cricket matches in the UK, the official CWC website explicitly states that tickets cannot be offered for public sale.
A Viagogo statement said: “Viagogo does not set ticket prices, sellers set their own prices, which may be above or below the original face value. Where demand is high and tickets are limited, prices increase.
“Viagogo is a marketplace and doesn’t buy or sell tickets. Viagogo provides a platform for third party sellers to sell tickets to event goers.
“Event organisers sometimes make claims that they will deny entry to people who have purchased resold tickets. These types of entry restrictions are highly unfair and in our view, unenforceable and illegal.”
StubHub has also been found listing two gold tickets for the India v Pakistan match at Old Trafford on June 16 for £3,280, though they were originally priced at £150 per ticket.
When asked for a comment by BBC Sport, StubHub said: “As a ticketing marketplace, StubHub does not set the price of tickets that appear on our site, the fans do. Importantly, the prices for the tickets mentioned are the ones listed, but as it is often the case, those are not necessarily the prices for which tickets sell.
“StubHub believes that fans should have the flexibility to use, transfer, donate or resell their tickets on the marketplace of their choice that provides them with the best user experience and consumer protections.”
Earlier this month, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) threatened to take legal action against Viagogo for allegedly breaching UK consumer law through its sale of tickets for the Specsavers Ashes Series.
Image: ICC
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