The organisers of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics (Vanoc) have sued Canadian travel company Roadtrips over the sale of illegal Olympic tickets.
The lawsuit issued accuses Roadtrips of engaging in “materially false, deceptive and misleading advertising, acts and practices” by promising Olympic tickets at prices far higher than their printed value.
“[Roadtrips] doesn’t have the authority to sell Olympic tickets and that’s what they’re doing,” Vanoc executive vice-president Dave Cobb said yesterday. “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.
