Court to hear first row over Olympic tickets

Source: Xinhua  |   2008-7-15  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

THE first case of an Olympic ticket dispute reached a Beijing court yesterday, involving ownership of four tickets.

The Fengtai District Court announced it had accepted a case from a man surnamed Wang, who said he had booked tickets in another person's name in September but paid for them through his own bank account.

A court source said Wang, manager of a trade company, asked one of his employees surnamed Wu to book him four Olympic tickets via the Internet. Wu used her own ID for the booking but left Wang's contact phone number on the application. On June 28, Wang accused Wu of collecting the tickets. He demanded Wu either return his tickets or pay back the money. Wang had paid 1,600 yuan (US$234) for the tickets and kept the bank receipt.

About 6 million tickets for the Olympics, or 86 percent, have been sold, according to Zhu Yan, head of the Beijing Olympics Ticketing Center, last week.

About a million tickets are still available for football matches in Tianjin, Shanghai, Qinhuangdao and Shenyang, he said.