Texas Resolves Charges Against Online Ticket Seller

Early in 2008, excitement was building for the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. In Austin, Tex., online ticket seller TicketCity rolled out a special Olympics package, offering tickets to the opening ceremonies for $1,200.

According to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, it wasn't just an offer. The company guaranteed purchasers would get the tickets and offered double their money back if they failed to deliver.

There was just one problem. Abbott says TicketCity didn't actually have the tickets when it made its guarantee. The start of the Olympics approached and the people who had purchased the tickets and made expensive airline reservations wanted to know where their tickets were. 

What refund?

Abbott says TicketCity failed to deliver the guaranteed tickets. To make matters worse, he says the company refused to provide the promised 200 percent refund.

At the same time TicketCity was refusing to fulfill commitments it made to customers who purchased their tickets online, the defendant’s sales personnel were allegedly offering to sell opening ceremony tickets at dramatically increased prices. State investigators with the Attorney General’s Office discovered that TicketCity representatives were demanding as much as $8,000 per ticket.

Enforcement action

That's when the State of Texas stepped in. Abbott filed an enforcement action which has now resulted in a settlement. In order to resolve the State’s legal action, TicketCity must provide the 200 percent refunds that it originally promised customers who purchased tickets to the opening ceremonies.

The company must also post a 120-day notice on its website informing eligible customers how to apply for refunds. Under the agreement, TicketCity customers who purchased Olympic tickets but never actually received them and unnecessarily incurred expenses associated with traveling to China may be eligible for additional restitution. TicketCity customers who purchased tickets to other events and experienced the same treatment from the defendant, are also eligible for restitution.