SEOUL: South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on Friday (Aug 28) began enforcing sweeping anti-scalping regulations that expose ticket resellers to administrative penalties of up to 50 times their total sales and introduce cash rewards for tipsters who report violations.
The enforcement decrees, which are amendments to the Performance Act Enforcement Decree and the National Sports Promotion Act Enforcement Decree, took effect on Aug 28, six months after the parent statutes were revised in February.
Under the previous law, only the resale of tickets originally purchased through macro programmes, which automatically and repeatedly input purchasing commands, was banned.
The revised framework scraps that narrow definition. Resellers now face penalties whether or not macro software was used anywhere in the transaction, and buyers who circumvent or disrupt a seller’s fair-purchase process in order to resell tickets face the same exposure.
The ministry described the two offences in the legislation as “fraudulent purchases” – bypassing an original seller’s fair-purchase process through technical means for the purpose of resale – and “fraudulent sale” – habitually or commercially reselling tickets above face value without the original seller’s consent.
Both carry criminal penalties of up to one year in prison or a fine of up to 10 million won (S$9,807), plus confiscation of illicit gains.
On top of criminal liability, the Culture Ministry may impose a separate administrative penalty — calculated at between two and 50 times the total sale amount – scaled to the number of tickets sold and the price obtained.
Platforms and primary ticket sellers are also brought into the enforcement chain for the first time.
Under the new decrees, online ticket vendors and e-commerce intermediaries must verify buyers’ identities, maintain a reporting function so users can flag suspicious listings, warn users that fraudulent activity may result in criminal charges or surcharges, and remove flagged listings within 24 hours – or within 10 hours in cases the ministry designates as urgent.
Failure to comply with document requests from a designated reporting agency carries a fine of up to 5 million won.
Whistleblowers stand to receive substantial rewards.
Informants who report fraudulent purchases can receive up to 50 million won; those who report fraudulent sales can receive up to 50 per cent of the administrative penalty ultimately imposed on the offender.
Several categories fall outside the new rules’ scope. Movie tickets and accommodation vouchers are not covered, nor are fan-meeting tickets, which the ministry classifies as commercial promotions rather than public performances.
Esports event tickets, however, may be subject to the sports provisions given that esports is a provisional member category of the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee, the ministry said – though simple fan meetings or game-experience events with no actual competition are excluded.
The ministry added that separate legislation targeting movie ticket scalping – increasingly visible at premium-format theaters – would be pursued “swiftly”.
However, the ministry conceded that there was a loophole: Foreign nationals who carry out such transactions entirely outside the country are not subject to Korean law under the territoriality principle. - The Korea Herald/ANN
