Brazil - The government of Brazil is concerned about the fact that some hotels which are listed on FIFA's official website for the 2014 World Cup has planned to increase the price during the tournament. The FIFA-appointed agency in charge of accommodations has reported to investigate the matter.

Brazil's tourism board has notified the justice ministry after its research showed that rates will be up to 500 percent more expensive during the World Cup in some hotels offered by the agency MATCH Services on FIFA's website.

"It's probable that MATCH is exercising intermediation fees that are a lot higher than usually exercised in the tourism market," the board said in a document obtained by The Associated Press, "harming the rights of potential consumers."

MATCH denied any wrongdoing on Saturday, saying it "provides a totally transparent price structure."

"With a small number of exceptions where MATCH Services has had to accept higher than normal rates, all other participating hotels have accepted and agreed to embrace FIFA's and MATCH's policy to provide reasonably acceptable rates," it said in a statement.

The Swiss-based company is primarily responsible for contracting and delivering accommodation for the FIFA community, including its officials, delegates, guests and staff. It also sells rooms to FIFA's commercial affiliates, the media and customers of the official hospitality program. Rooms are offered to the general public through the FIFA website operated and maintained by MATCH.

The study by the tourism board, known as Embratur, compared prices in several dozen hotels in the 12 host cities. It was conducted through researching prices announced on booking websites, the hotels' sites and FIFA's official web page.

Embratur did not say exactly how many hotels were compared, but of the 65 hotels listed in the study's results 22 increased prices more than 200 percent, with six offering rates at least 300 percent higher. The biggest increase was by a hotel in the northeastern city of Salvador, which will charge $509 per night during the World Cup, a 583 percent increase compared to the $75 it charged this July.

The host cities with the smallest increase in rates are Recife and Sao Paulo, with hikes of about 100 percent on average. The capital of Brasilia had the most expensive hotel in the study, with certain rooms costing $639 per night, a 376% increase compared to the current price.

The study showed that the average cost for a room in Rio de Janeiro during the World Cup will be $461, more than double the rate in Johannesburg for the 2010 World Cup final in South Africa.

Embratur said it wants to negotiate better prices in part because it's afraid that excessive rates during the FIFA World Cup may hurt Brazil's tourism in the long run.

Pricey hotel rooms became a hot topic last year during the Rio+20 U.N. conference, when the hotel sector took advantage of the spike in demand to charge exorbitant rates. The average cost of a room in Rio during the conference rose to nearly $800 a night, prompting a barrage of criticism from conference delegates. The European Parliament canceled its entire 11-person delegation due to the costs.