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Unofficial Olympic Websites Continue to Proliferate and Put Consumers at Risk

Despite enacting legislation to protect the copyright and trademarks of the London Olympic Games, the London Organizing Committee (LOCOG)is not bothering to actually enforce the legislation by shutting down flagrantly unofficial websites ready to prey on unsuspecting consumers. To add insult to injury, in most cases, it takes no more than a simple phone call or letter to shut down the illegal sites. To read more, go here...

Britain Gets On Board, Guarantees Tickets to Olympians’Families

In the wake of Canada’s decision to guarantee tickets to families of its Olympics athletes for the 2010 Winter Games, Britain has announced plans to make sure its Olympic families will have tickets to the 2012 Summer Games in London. The British Olympic Association has entered into an agreement with the London 2012 Organizing Committee assuring that Team Great Britain will receive the first allocation of tickets to allow immediate families to watch their Olympians’ events. The details of the plan have yet to be finalized, so it’s unknown if the families will simply be guaranteed access to tickets, or be provided them free, as will be the case in Canada. For more on this, go here...

Ticket Scam Employees Arrested in London

Five employees of Xclusive Leisure & Hospitality Limited (XLH), the company behind beijingticketing.com, the most notorious of the scam Olympics tickets websites, have been arrested by investigators from Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO). According to reports, the five included Terance Shepherd, the man thought by many to be the brains behind XLH and a number of other suspected scam ticket sites, his wife, Xclusive director Alan Scott, former company secretary Gert Van Meel, and a man named Richard Nicholas. The five were interviewed and then released on bail. The arrests followed the search of three residential and one business property, and according to the SFO are part of an ongoing investigation into the activities of Xclusive Leisure & Hospitality. In what is considered an unusual move, the SFO has appealed to the public for information, asking that anyone who feels they were defrauded by XLH or one of their websites contact them with details. To contact the SFO, go here. To read more about the arrests, go here, here, and here...

Families of Canada’s Winter Olympians Guaranteed Tickets

Of the many ticketing problems to surface at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, one of the more disturbing was the difficulties parents of Olympic athletes had obtaining tickets to see their children compete. To solve that problem for Canadian athletes at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, Petro Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee have established a program to guarantee not just event tickets but also lodging to Olympians’ family members. Some Olympics families are hoping to extend such programs to the 2012 Summer Olympics and beyond. For more on this, go here...

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