Commission poised to issue World Cup ticketing fine

Date: 13/05/1999

By Peter Chapman

ACTING Competition Commissioner Karel van Miert is set to fine the France '98 World Cup organisers over the ticketing arrangements for the event.

During last year's contest, Van Miert accused the French organising committee of distributing most of the tickets to people who could prove they had a French address. He said it compounded the offence by ignoring an order to sell the last tranche of 11,000 tickets to non-French fans.

Now Van Miert has indicated that he is inclined to follow up those warnings by imposing heavy financial penalties on the organisers. Under EU anti-trust rules, the Commission could levy up to 10% of the revenue generated by the estimated 2.5 million tickets sold at the event, plus cash from other World Cup commercial deals.

Officials in the Commission's Directorate-General for competition (DGIV) insist a final decision on whether to impose fines has not yet been taken and say they are still analysing the French organisers' responses to the concerns they raised.

One said, however, that a ruling would be made "in the not too distant future" and admitted that DGIV and the Acting Commissioner were "in broad agreement" over the situation. "Van Miert obviously has more latitude to talk about what he thinks than we do," he added.

But the official stressed that the Commission would consult EU governments before levying any fines.

News of the likely penalties follows hot on the heels of last week's announcement by anti-trust officials that they plan to investigate ticketing arrangements for the forthcoming Euro 2000 football championship finals in Belgium and Holland.