Paris Court's Decision on IRB Hospitality Arrangements

The International Rugby Board (IRB), the world governing body of rugby union, has failed in its attempt to prevent an event hospitality agency from offering corporate packages at the Rugby World Cup in France this autumn without the prior approval of the tournament's organising committee and rights holder, Rugby World Cup Limited. The decision of a Paris court threatens to devalue hospitality packages sold by sports governing bodies and sports rights holders at major sporting events and calls into question the validity of exclusive hospitality arrangements between rights holders and a select number of commercial agents.

The Paris Commercial Court found that Marcus Evans, through its subsidiary company thg, was not guilty of passing itself off as being an official agent of the IRB Rugby World Cup, despite offering hospitality, accommodation and transport to and from Rugby World Cup stadiums. The primary reason for the court's finding appears to be based on the fact that Marcus Evans was not selling match tickets as part of their packages, the right to which resides with Rugby World Cup Limited.

For this autumn's tournament, Rugby World Cup Limited had already entered into exclusive agreements with Sodexho (catering) and Mike Burton (UK corporate hospitality), but following the court decision it has been suggested that arrangements with only a handful of agents may risk being in breach of European competition laws which operate to prevent restrictive selling.

Despite Marcus Evans pointing to the fact that it displays a notice on its website disclaiming any link with the IRB Rugby World Cup, the IRB has claimed that it has evidence that Marcus Evans had indeed obtained unauthorised tickets for tournament matches and was re-selling them as part of its hospitality packages. An appeal may follow shortly.