Shanghai Pudong Court has received a lawsuit from a newlywed couple who accuse Internet travel service provider Ctrip.com (CTRP) of charging high compensation fees from them.

On November 20, 2007, the newlywed couple Ji Mingan and Lu Lijun booked a five-day FIT service, scheduled on November 23-27, 2007, with Ctrip.com as their honeymoon trip and paid the travel website CNY9686 for the service. The couple later called Ctrip.com on the evening of November 21, 2007 to cancel the trip, but was told by the company that their request could not be processed because it was not work time. They called again on the morning of November 22, asking to cancel the order and for a full refund, but was told by Ctrip that they need to pay 60% of the service price for compensation of the breach of contract.

After failing in reaching an agreement with Ctrip on the refund, the couple sued, asking it to return the remaining CNY4106 (they already received a refund of CNY5580 after negotiations) plus the interest involved, make a written apology and undertake all the relevant legal fees.

The laywer for Ctrip has told local media that the 60% compensation charged by Ctrip is not a fine to the couple, but a fee to cover Ctrip's own loss as a result of the couple's cancellation of the service.

As the parties don't agree to reach reconciliation, the case will be processed by the court soon.