The Texas Attorney General's office is suing an Austin-based ticket company for selling fake tickets to the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.
A lawsuit filed by Attorney General Greg Abbott's office last week charges TicketCity.com with defrauding customers looking to purchase the tickets.
The suit cites four out-of-state customers who were sold tickets to the opening ceremonies in Beijing with a promise of a 200 percent refund should TicketCity fail to produce them. The company, the lawsuit alleges, never possessed these tickets in the first place.
"These were out-of-state folks who complained to us about this company," said attorney general spokesman Tom Kelley. "We took quick action because of the chance for real harm."
According to Chinese government regulations, the last day to sell opening ceremony tickets was July 14, but the suit says TicketCity continued to advertise tickets for sale as late as July 16. Kelley said TicketCity offered to sell tickets to an undercover investigator working for the attorney general's office when the deadline had already passed, and the office expected more complaints from defrauded customers once the lawsuit was filed.
The attorney general's office hopes news of the lawsuit will lead others who have been defrauded to report the cases, Kelley said.
"We believe this litigation is going to give us more complaints. We only have a handful of folks that have been affected by this right now," Kelley said. "What we want to know, of course, is if others are out there who have been scammed."
The attorney general is filing the suit under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. TicketCity may be punished with penalties up to $20,000 for each violation of the act found in court.
"Certainly, they're not refunding these monies as they promised," Kelley said. "That's more than enough to go to court."
TicketCity has 20 days to respond to the suit before a court date is set.
TicketCity marketing director Zack Anderson said the company could not comment on the lawsuit until its lawyers are able to review the case.
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