Texas AG Resolves Ticket Action

The Texas Attorney General’s office has ordered Austin-based online ticket broker TicketCity to refund consumers who purchased tickets to the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games and never received them.

TicketCity was charged by the AG’s office in August 2008 for unlawfully marketing advance “guaranteed” tickets to the Games that it did not possess, according to a statement.

The broker apparently promised to double refunds to consumers on $1,250 opening ceremony tickets for the Games if it failed to deliver. But some Texans who purchased tickets through the site and made travel arrangements to China were then left high and dry by TicketCity.

To add insult to injury, the AG’s office found that at the same time TicketCity was refusing to fulfill ticket commitments to customers, the site continued to sell tickets to the opening ceremony at upwards of $8,000 per ticket.

To resolve the state’s legal action, the broker has been ordered to provide the 200 percent refunds it originally promised to customers and to post a notice on its website instructing customers how to apply for refunds.