KarloBag.eu proposes that Olympique Lyonnais use exclusively official links for home-match tickets
KarloBag.eu has proposed to Olympique Lyonnais a change in the way the portal displays links to tickets for the French club's home matches. According to the content of the response addressed to the club's legal department, the portal is prepared to use exclusively the official ticket-sales link designated by the club itself for all Olympique Lyonnais matches at Groupama Stadium. KarloBag.eu states that it neither sells nor resells tickets, but instead connects readers with external services, which is why, according to its own explanation, it cannot independently determine whether each individual seller or listing on third-party platforms has been authorized by the specific organizer. The proposal was presented without any admission of legal liability and with the aim of eliminating future uncertainty concerning the way readers will be directed toward purchasing tickets for matches in Lyon. It is a model that, if accepted by Olympique Lyonnais and if the club provides the desired official address, would separate editorial content from commercial ticket links.
The portal asks the club to designate the official address
In its proposal, KarloBag.eu states that once it receives the official ticket-sales URL from Olympique Lyonnais, it will implement that link throughout the entire system within no more than seven days. For home matches at Groupama Stadium, ticket prices from external sales platforms would no longer be displayed, and the portal would not receive an affiliate commission, referral fee, or any other form of compensation from the official club link. Editorial articles about matches, cities, stadiums, and practical information for visitors would remain unchanged in terms of content. Only the sales layer of the website would therefore change, namely the destination of buttons or links through which a reader moves from informational content to the purchase page. In its correspondence, KarloBag.eu explicitly asks the club to provide the address it wants the portal to use, thereby linking responsibility for the selection of the official sales channel to direct confirmation from Olympique Lyonnais.
The club's official information already provides clear guidance. In Olympique Lyonnais's ticketing FAQ section, the club states that match tickets are sold exclusively through its official online ticket office at billetterie.ol.fr and warns that purchasing through an unofficial platform does not guarantee entry to the stadium. In the same section, the club reminds users of French rules concerning unauthorized resale of tickets for home matches. That official message is important for understanding why KarloBag.eu offered a model in which, at least for Olympique Lyonnais home matches, all commercial routes would be reduced to a single address controlled by the club. Such an approach would also show readers more clearly the difference between journalistic content about an event and the official channel for the transaction.
French law specifically regulates regular unauthorized resale
The legal context in France further clarifies why clubs insist on controlling distribution channels. Article 313-6-2 of the French Penal Code provides that the regular sale, offering, display for sale, or facilitation of the sale of tickets for sporting, cultural, and other events without authorization from the organizer, producer, or rights holder is punishable by a fine of 15,000 euros, or 30,000 euros in the event of a repeat offense. The provision also applies to the provision of means by which such a sale or transfer is facilitated, but at the same time the law expressly refers to conduct carried out habitually, that is, regularly. In 2018, the French Constitutional Council, in a case connected with Viagogo, confirmed the constitutionality of that provision and emphasized that the prohibition concerns unauthorized, habitual resale or the facilitation of such resale, while the occasional disposal of a ticket by an individual is not the same legal issue. For the specific relationship between a media outlet, an affiliate link, and an individual sales platform, however, an assessment of the actual circumstances is still required, so the mere existence of a link cannot automatically lead to a conclusion of legal liability.
Since August 2026, the French Sports Code has stated even more explicitly that the right to exploit a sporting event also includes the right to exploit ticket sales. Under the current Article L333-1-1, that right belongs within the rights of the organizer or rights holder in the sporting competition, further confirming the importance of official sales arrangements. In practice, clubs therefore do not regard the issue of tickets merely as a technical link on a website, but as part of the commercial and organizational rights connected with the event. Olympique Lyonnais goes a step further than the general statutory wording in its own instructions and directs supporters straight to the official ticket office. For an international portal publishing content in several languages, this means that a single rule for all clubs does not necessarily correspond to the rules of every organizer, so individual redirection to the official channel is one way of reducing legal and consumer uncertainty.
Third-party offers were still visible on August 25
A review of publicly available KarloBag.eu content shows that on August 25, 2026, immediately before the home match between Olympique Lyonnais and Fenerbahçe in the Champions League qualifiers, one of the language versions of the page was still displaying a selection of offers from external partners. The platforms Ticombo and SportEvents365 were listed on that page, together with highlighted starting prices and a notice that the links could be affiliate links and that KarloBag.eu could earn a commission if a user purchased a ticket through them. This fact shows that the proposed change had not yet been implemented on all relevant pages at the time of the review. This is consistent with the portal's proposal itself, which makes implementation conditional on receiving the official link from Olympique Lyonnais and provides for a period of seven days following its receipt. It has not been publicly confirmed whether the club had sent such an address in response to the proposal by August 25, nor is it publicly known whether it accepted the proposed model.
At the same time, Olympique Lyonnais's official calendar confirms that home matches continue to be held at Groupama Stadium in Décines-Charpieu, in the Lyon metropolitan area. The club's business calendar for the end of August 2026 lists, among other fixtures, the match against Fenerbahçe on August 26 and the league match against Le Havre on August 29. The club's ticket-sales notification system also lists a series of home fixtures during the 2026/2027 season, showing that the official channel covers continuous sales and notifications rather than only individual major matches. This is precisely why the rule proposed by KarloBag.eu is not limited to one disputed or particularly attractive event, but applies to all Olympique Lyonnais home matches at that stadium. If implemented as announced, the change would automatically apply to future league and European matches sold through the club's official ticket office.
No price display and no commission for the official link
One of the more important parts of the proposal concerns the complete removal of any financial incentive associated with the official Olympique Lyonnais link. KarloBag.eu states that it will not display ticket prices for the club's home matches and will not receive an affiliate commission, referral fee, or any other form of compensation from the link designated by the club. This would avoid a situation in which the portal compares the prices of unofficial or secondary sellers with those of the official ticket office, as well as a situation in which it could have a direct economic interest in directing a user toward a particular offer. From an article or event page, the reader would proceed directly to the channel designated by the club as official, while the price, availability, stadium sections, purchase conditions, and any fees would only be displayed on Olympique Lyonnais's destination page. For the consumer, this provides a simpler indication of who is actually selling the ticket and under whose terms the transaction is concluded.
Such separation is particularly relevant because KarloBag.eu, according to its own description, operates as an electronic publication and information portal, not as a ticket office. On its "About us" page, the portal states that it writes about sports, music, stand-up events, and travel and connects users with tickets from selected partners. The portal is available in six languages and directs its content toward an international audience, meaning that the same technical system can simultaneously handle thousands of events and a large number of different organizers. It is precisely this model that makes the issue of authorization more complex: the fact that a platform is legitimately present on the market does not necessarily mean that it is authorized for every individual match of every club. For that reason, direct club confirmation of the sales URL is the clearest way to avoid assumptions about the status of external sellers for specific matches.
The new version of the portal should bring the entire fan journey together
In its correspondence, KarloBag.eu also announces a new version of the platform, whose launch is planned approximately 45 days after the response was sent. According to the portal's announcement, the new version should focus on a more comprehensive experience for visitors to sporting events: alongside tickets, it would bring together information or offers related to transport, accommodation, and fan merchandise. For an international audience, this means a shift from an individual match page toward a model for planning an entire trip, particularly for visitors traveling to the host city from another country. The portal also states that it cooperates with Fanatics in the field of sports merchandise and describes it as an official retailer for numerous clubs and sporting events. Fanatics confirms on its corporate website that its Fanatics Commerce division operates as a major global designer, manufacturer, and retailer of licensed sports products and works with more than 900 sports organizations, leagues, clubs, and other sports entities.
On the new platform as well, KarloBag.eu proposes the same special rule for Olympique Lyonnais: for home matches at Groupama Stadium, ticket links would lead exclusively to the official URL provided by the club, without displaying prices and without any commission or other compensation to the portal. This means that expanding the content to transport, hotels, and merchandise would not alter the agreed treatment of tickets for Lyon. Editorial and travel content could remain connected with the event, but the ticket purchase itself would be separated into a channel controlled by the organizer. Such a model also leaves open the possibility that different models may be used for other clubs and events, depending on the rules of their organizers and the official partnerships available. The correspondence does not indicate that KarloBag.eu is announcing a complete end to cooperation with third-party platforms for all events, but rather a targeted exception for Olympique Lyonnais home matches.
The key question now is Olympique Lyonnais's response
The proposed solution effectively reduces the next step to confirmation by the club. KarloBag.eu asks Olympique Lyonnais's legal department to send the exact official link it wants to see on the portal, after which, according to the announcement, the technical change would be implemented within seven days. At the same time, the portal does not accept the claim that by displaying external offers to date it necessarily assumed the role of seller or reseller, but emphasizes that its function was to connect users with third parties. On the other hand, Olympique Lyonnais's official instructions unequivocally identify its own online ticket office as the place where supporters should purchase tickets for the club's matches. For that reason, the proposed model, at least operationally, brings the portal's practice closer to the club's official policy without the need to publicly prejudge the outcome or the legal assessment of the previous way of operating.
For readers and ticket buyers, the most important consequence would be greater clarity. Instead of seeing several commercial offers from different sellers on the page for an Olympique Lyonnais home match, they would see only the route to the club's official ticket office, while checking all information about availability and price directly with the organizer. For the club, such a system would reduce the risk of offers appearing alongside its home matches whose status it had not approved or verified. For KarloBag.eu, it would mean giving up potential revenue from affiliate links for those events, but also establishing a clearer boundary between journalistic content and the sales process. Whether this model becomes a permanent framework for cooperation will depend primarily on Olympique Lyonnais's response and on whether the club officially confirms the URL that the portal is requesting for implementation.
Sources:
- Olympique Lyonnais FAQ – official instructions on purchasing tickets and the official online ticket office (link)
- Olympique Lyonnais / OL Entreprises – official calendar of home matches at Groupama Stadium for the 2026/2027 season (link)
- Légifrance – Article 313-6-2 of the French Penal Code on unauthorized regular resale and facilitation of ticket sales (link)
- Légifrance – provisions of the French Sports Code on rights to exploit sporting events and ticket sales, including amendments effective from August 2026 (link)
- Conseil constitutionnel / Légifrance – 2018 decision on the constitutionality of Article 313-6-2 and the scope of the prohibition on unauthorized resale (link)
- KarloBag.eu – public description of the portal, its editorial model, and the linking of users with tickets from selected partners (link)
- KarloBag.eu – publicly available page for the Olympique Lyonnais – Fenerbahçe match featuring third-party offers, reviewed on August 25, 2026 (link)
- Fanatics Commerce – official description of its licensed sports merchandise business and partnerships with sports organizations (link)