Tens of thousands of American fans are not getting full refunds for their tickets to the Tokyo Olympics – despite being told last week that foreign viewers will not be allowed to attend the rescheduled games due to COVID-19.
CoSport, a New Jersey-based company with exclusive rights to sell Olympic tickets in the United States, announced to ticket holders on Saturday that it will not refund a 20% processing fee, which means hundreds or even thousands of dollars for some fans.
In an email to ticket holders, CoSport attributed its decision to the Tokyo Olympics organizers’ refusal to accept this portion of the refund. “CoSport and other Olympic institutions encouraged the Japanese government and organizers to reimburse all expenses incurred by international viewers,” the company wrote.
However, the organizers only reimburse the face value plus shipping costs, according to CoSport.
Cosport USA will send an email with details of the refund policy for # Tokyo2020. Cosport will not refinance the 20% processing fee with the orders and viewers will not be refunded until the 3rd quarter of this year. pic.twitter.com/SOdOdgfNy8
– Ken Hanscom (@KenHanscom) March 27, 2021
With neither CoSport nor the organizers taking responsibility for the fees, fans – many of whom paid thousands of dollars two years ago – just can’t go to the Olympics. You won’t get all your money back. And some are incredulous.
The Confusing Olympic Ticket Selling Process
Olympic ticketing is complex. Local organizers conclude a contract with “Authorized Ticket Resellers” and grant them the right to distribute tickets in a certain foreign country or area. The basic costs for a ticket itself go to the Olympic organizers.
The resellers are permitted under the agreement to charge processing or handling fees that will be paid directly to their own bank accounts. To a certain extent, they cover operating costs. But Olympic organizers never see them.
The story goes on
In some other countries, resellers have announced that they will reimburse these fees. In the UK, for example, Team GB Live “will not keep a penny from anyone’s money that has been overpaid”.
However, CoSport argues that the organizers should reimburse these fees after all foreign fans have been banned from the Tokyo Games. “That fee was spent,” wrote CoSport. “Because of the refund process, some of our costs, such as handling fees for financial transactions and currency conversion, are doubled.”
Ticket holders are pressured to accept an incomplete refund
CoSport was checked for handling the Olympic reimbursement process last year. A customer told the Los Angeles Times that the company sent her an approval form when she requested a refund last summer. She only had a few days to either sign it and “forever absolve and exempt CoSport and its affiliates from all claims arising from or related to your order”; or void the refund.
The refund then only arrived a few weeks ago – and was only 75% of its original purchase price. She told the Los Angeles Times that the company had sent her a new retrospective release form upon request that stated a 75% refund, not a full one. Other customers have described similarly difficult processes in detail.
And CoSport appears to have recently changed its terms and conditions for purchases at the Tokyo Olympics. Most of these purchases were made in 2019. The updated terms state that they will be effective on February 17, 2021.
Saturday’s letter also gives customers less than two weeks to request a refund – although they are told they will not receive the refund until Tokyo organizers return money, which “will take until the third quarter of this year” .
To request a refund, customers must also release CoSport from any further claims related to these orders, as requested by customers last summer.
This likely means fans will have two weeks to make a decision: accept the incomplete refund and agree not to sue; or do without it and sue?
Some have circulated the idea of a class action lawsuit. It is unclear whether such a suit would have any value. The solution would almost certainly cost a lot of time and money.
Japanese fans are allowed to take part in the planned Olympic Games in Tokyo, but foreign spectators are not. (AP Photo / Koji Sasahara)
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