A Beijing Olympics official said on Monday that police authorities have caught more than 100 scalpers and confiscated about 340 tickets for the Olympic Games.
Wang Wei, spokesman for the Beijing Organizing Committee of the 29th Olympic Games (BOCOG), said at a press conference that it is the police authorities that will decide how to deal with the confiscated tickets.
"I think policemen have done their best, as it's not easy to distinguish the situation in which tickets are actually transferred in a fair way and the situation in which the tickets are scalped for high profits," Wang said.
Wang also said the BOCOG had no unused tickets. All the tickets were sold. "Of course, as a standard practice, there are some emergency tickets, about two percent of the total and scattered all over the venues, for dealing with emergencies, such as the certain part of a venue has to be blocked. Such kind of tickets must be kept and we do not have any other tickets."
Asked to make comment on scalping, Communications director Giselle Davies of the International Olympic Committee said, "We see actions have been taken by the authorities."
She also briefed journalists that the IOC, together with the United States Olympic Committee, have taken legal actions in the United States against one company that fraudulently sold tickets.
"That case is currently through legal process. I believe the case for injunction procedures will be due sometime at the end of this week," said Davies.
"There is nobody wanting to see this kind of business practice. It hurt those who want to come and join the Games and we were together working as hard as possible to stamp out these practices," Davies added.
It is challenging because this works through the Internet. This is something that does not just affect the Olympic Games but a challenge for all major multi-spot global events, she said when commenting on the online scalping in the United States.
(Xinhua News Agency August 18, 2008)