According to the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, Shankai signed an agreement with Beijing China Travel Service Co in March 2011 to share agency rights in China. Shankai would provide hospitality deals and the travel service company would help arrange the hotel, transportation and tourism services.
The company then started selling the World Cup hospitality package deals with the tourism, hotel and transportation services. It has sold 390 such deals as of March.
"Even though the party involved also sold 54 hospitality package deals without other services, it failed to inform the consumers clearly that they could purchase the hospitality package deals independently," the authority said in a statement. "Company staff even told consumers that the hospitality package deals could not be purchased independently."
Shankai's Beijing office said its spokesperson could not be reached on Friday. E-mailed questions to a media officer with MATCH Services AG went unanswered.
Beijing China Travel Service Co Ltd was still offering a number of tourism package services that include tickets to World Cup matches and tours of scenic spots in Brazil on its websites as of Friday.
A salesperson who refused to be identified said that the tour agency has access to tickets to the World Cup but refused to provide the source of the tickets.
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