VANOC To Take Piece Of Resale Profits.

10/27/2009

VANOC recently announced that its Olympic ticket resale site is just a few weeks away from being launched. The website will allow people wishing to resell their Olympic tickets to do so through official channels.

This represents quite a change in position for VANOC, which earlier this year sued Canada-based company Roadtrips for reselling Olympic tickets. The lawsuit essentially alleged that Roadtrips’ resale of tickets violated the contractual terms by which all tickets are sold, since the terms of purchase prohibit resale. To read more on the lawsuit, click here.

Now, VANOC seems to be backtracking. Instead of trying to prohibit the resale of Olympic tickets for profit, VANOC will allow ticket holders to resell tickets on its site for whatever the market price is, which is to be determined by websites such as Craigslist and eBay. A percentage of each ticket sold on the site will go to VANOC.

The committee claims they have to allow potential resellers to profit or run the risk of them not using the site. In reality, it seems that VANOC is clamping down on the secondary market by going after resellers like Roadtrips, while creating their own resale market and taking a piece of the action.

VANOC’s resale site will likely frustrate companies like Roadtrips, who already believe that VANOC and official resellers are engaged in anti-competitive protection of their market share.

The website will be launched following the final offering of tickets in Canada on November 7.