The National Human Rights Commission of Korea recommended to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on the 12th a plan to eradicate illegal trading of performance and sports event tickets. The commission suggested the establishment of regulations for the confiscation and penalties of profits from scalping tickets.
Ticket scalpers use macro programs to repeatedly perform specific tasks, reserve seats, add markup prices, and resell tickets for a profit through second-hand trading sites. For example, the ticket prices for singer Lim Young-woong’s concert last year skyrocketed to as much as 500,000 won, about 30 times more than the original VIP seat price of 165,000 won.
The National Assembly amended the Performance Act and the National Sports Promotion Act earlier this year to allow for criminal penalties for scalping tickets using macro programs. However, it was pointed out that proving the use of macro programs for ticket reservations is difficult, leading to ineffectiveness even when scalping activities are caught.
Reflecting this criticism, the commission recommended to the Ministry of Culture that ticket scalping activities should be punished regardless of the use of macro programs and that regulations for the confiscation and penalties of scalping profits should be established.
![Yoo Cheol-hwan, Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, explaining the plan to eradicate illegal trading of performance and sports event tickets at the Seoul Government Seoul Plaza Building on the morning of the 12th. Kim Young-won reporter [email protected]](https://imgnews.pstatic.net/image/028/2024/09/12/0002707137_002_20240913020214707.jpg?type=w647)
The Ministry of Culture stated that it will accept the commission’s recommendations and work on improving the system by amending relevant laws by the end of this year. Kang Soo-sang, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Culture, said they are pushing for amendments to relevant provisions in the National Sports Promotion Act and the Performance Act and are in the process of refining the draft amendment provisions to submit to the National Assembly.