South Korea is officially cracking-down on ticket scalping online.
According to a recent law revision, which went into effect earlier this month, the government is banning the use of macro tools — also known as “bots” — to buy tickets. The Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism said the Public Performance Act now states that no one shall illegally buy tickets for performances by using computer programing tools for automated repetitive inputs — the macro programs — for the purpose of reselling them.
Anyone who violates this law will face a 10 million won ($7,500) fine or up to a one year prison sentence.
“Ticket scalping threatens the basis of the market order for our culture and sports, and we (the ministry) will take severe actions against it,” Culture Ministry Yu In-chon said in a statement. “The Culture Ministry will implement various policies that can root out and prevent ticket scalping, thus restoring the order in the distribution system of culture and sports fields.”
Currently, the ministry has implemented a webpage where people can make reports related to illegal ticket sales.
Despite the government’s attempt to curb resale, fans are familiar with purchasing tickets on the secondary market; according to The Straits Times, the Record Label Industry Association of Korea found in a survey that 32.8% of fans between ages 19 and 29 have purchased a ticket from a scalper, while 25% of those in their 30s and 40s bought resale tickets. That number dropped to 19.2% of surveyors in their 50s and 12.9% of those in their 60s.
“It would be hard to put an end to ticket scalping itself, but at least revise the law that was made 50 years ago,” the record label association said.
