The first case of Olympic ticket dispute reached a Beijing court on Monday, looking for its judgement on the ownership of four tickets.
The Fengtai District Court in the Olympic host city announced it had accepted a case from a man surnamed Wang. He contends he made the ticket booking in another person's name in September but paid for them through his own bank account.
A court source said Wang, the manager of a trade company, asked one of his employees surnamed Wu to book him four Olympic tickets via the Internet. Wu used her own ID for the booking but left Wang's contact phone number on the application.
On June 28, Wang accused Wu of collecting the tickets without his noticing. He then demanded Wu either return his tickets or pay back the money.
Wang had paid 1,600 yuan (234 US dollars) for the tickets in his own name and kept the bank receipt.
The court source did not disclose what sports the tickets were for.
About six million tickets for the Aug. 8 to 24 Olympiads, or 86 percent, had been sold, according to Zhu Yan, head of the Beijing Olympics Ticketing Center, last week.
The majority of the approximately one million unsold tickets are for soccer competitions in four co-host cities -- Tianjin, Shanghai, Qinhuangdao and Shenyang, he said.
Tickets for the opening ceremony and many popular sports have experienced a meteoric rise in price as the Games is less than one month away. Police in Beijing have waged a campaign to combat illegal ticket transfers.
(Xinhua News Agency July 14, 2008)