Chinese Court Rejects Company's Right to Sell 'World Cup Air'

Jun 20, 06:29 AM

Current Headlines: Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)

["Chinese Court Rejects Company's Right To Sell 'World Cup Air'" - Xinhua headline]

Beijing, June 20 (Xinhua) - A Chinese firm that once tried to sell land on the Moon has lost an appeal against a court ruling that prohibited it from selling bags of "World Cup air".

Beijing Lunar Village Aeronautics Science and Technology Co., also known as "Lunar Embassy to China", lost a suit against the Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce, which refused its application to sell "special air from a special place".

The Chaoyang District People's Court in December last year ruled against the company's proposal to sell green plastic bags full of air from stadiums that hosted matches in the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Li Jie, the company's chief executive officer, had planned to sell the bags to soccer fans for 50 yuan (6.57 US dollars) each.

On Tuesday, the Beijing Second Intermediate People's Court ruled against the company's appeal, saying, "Air is too vague and unstable a concept to be covered by commercial classifications."

Li was reported last year as saying, "My idea was that fans unable to make the trip to the World Cup soccer tournament in Germany earlier this year could hang the green plastic bags around their necks and breathe in the air while watching matches on television."

Li said he got the idea from a German company which was selling canned air from World Cup stadiums in June 2005. He believed selling air was legal because he read a story in a primary school textbook telling a little fox that sold air, the court heard.

He registered the company in September 2005 and offered to sell individuals ownership of an acre of lunar land for 298 yuan (38 US dollars). Within three days of opening for business it was reported that 34 clients had bought 49 acres of land, earning the company more than 14,000 yuan.

But a month later the Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce revoked the firm's business license on the grounds that a company cannot sell things it does not own.

Li sued the authority and asked the court to return his property, but the suit was rejected in November 2006 by the Haidian District Court. The company appealed to the Beijing First Intermediate People's Court, which rejected the appeal on March 16 this year.

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