Vanoc Sues Local Firm Over Ticket Sales
The organising committee of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver have sued a local travel operator over the illegal sale of tickets to the Games.
The organisers VANOC have issued a lawsuit against Canadian firm Roadtrips accusing the operator of engaging in ‘materially false, deceptive and misleading advertising, acts and practices’ after it offered Olympic tickets at prices far higher than their printed value.
Said VANOC executive vice-president Dave Cobb: ‘Roadtrips doesn’t have the authority to sell Olympic tickets and that’s what they’re doing. Companies are making assumptions they’re going to get tickets, in our opinion inappropriately and not through the right channels.
‘We have received very few suspicious orders from sponsors and national committees and some offenders in the past responded in a very positive way this time.’
Roadtrips president David Guenther responded in a statement saying: ‘It is perfectly legal and common practice to sell sports travel packages. This activity is different than the simple re-sale of event tickets, which is also legal in most parts of Canada and the United States.’
VANOC took similar court action against Vancouver ticket broker Shane Bourdage’s company Coast2Coast Tickets two months ago.
