The Canadian Press reports Vancouver 2010 organizers are suing a Winnipeg-based travel company offering tours that include tickets to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
According to games organizers, Roadtrips, and its president David Guenther, are offering tours that include tickets to the Games they don’t have a legal right to sell.
They “have engaged in materially false, deceptive and misleading advertising, acts and practices” said the lawsuit.
Organizers say anyone who buys the tickets could be turned away at the event gate as Olympic organizers reserve the right to void tickets that have been improperly sold.
“There is a real and substantial risk that Roadtrips will not be able to deliver tickets to its customers and that any such tickets presented by Roadtrips’ customers at 2010 Winter Games events will be cancelled, invalidated and seized by VANOC” said the suit filed May 11.
Roadtrips’ website says it can offer tickets to every 2010 event, including the Opening and Closing ceremonies.
The lawsuit claims it has repeatedly asked Roadtrips to stop offering the packages.
The suit asks the court to force Roadtrips to disclose where it is getting its tickets from and to say who the company has sold tickets to so far.
In the past Vancouver 2010 has said it plans a crackdown on sponsors and national Olympic committees which are believed to supply most of the tickets on the broker market, reports The Canadian Press.
Hundreds of people attending the Beijing Olympics who bought tickets from brokers reportedly showed up in China only to find out their tickets were invalid.
The Vancouver 2010 committee filed a similar suit against Vancouver-based Coast2Coast Tickets in March.
