The first case of Olympic ticket dispute reached a Beijing court yesterday,
looking for its judgement on the ownership of four tickets.
The Fengtai District Court in the Olympic host city announced it had accepted
a case from a man surnamed Wang. He contends he made the ticket booking in
another person's name in September but paid for them through his own bank
account.
A court source said Wang, the 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 without his noticing.
He then demanded Wu either return his tickets or payback the money.
Wang had paid 1,600 yuan (234 U.S. dollars) for the tickets in his own name
and kept the bank receipt.
The court source did not disclose what sports the tickets were for.
About six million tickets for the Aug. 8 to 24 Olympiads, or 86percent, had
been sold, according to Zhu Yan, head of the Beijing Olympics Ticketing Center,
last week.
The majority of the approximately one million unsold tickets are for soccer
competitions in four co-host cities -- Tianjin, Shanghai, Qinhuangdao and
Shenyang, he said.
Tickets for the opening ceremony and many popular sports have experienced a
meteoric rise in price as the Games is less than one month away. Police in
Beijing have waged a campaign to combat illegal ticket transfers.