South Korean Government looks to combat ticket scalping with macro tools ban

As part of moves to fight widespread ticket scalping in the country, a new South Korean Government measure that bans the use of macro tools to buy tickets is now in effect.

A revision of South Korea’s Public Performance Act now specifies that no one shall illegally buy tickets for performances by using computer programming tools for automated repetitive inputs - the macro programs - for the purpose of reselling them, with those guilty of violations subject to up to one year in prison or a 10 million won (US$7,500) fine.

As reported by the Korea Herald, Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism spokesperson Yu In-chon explained "ticket scalping threatens the basis of the market order for our culture and sports, and we will take severe actions against it.

“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."

Since 2nd March, the Culture Ministry has been operating a webpage exclusively devoted to reports related to illegal ticket sales, which allows users to report such acts online or via telephone while providing options to apply for legal consultation. It plans to work closely with the cybercrime division of the National Police Agency to crack down on the ticket scalping.

The Culture Ministry also plans to hold continued meetings with those in the fields of culture and sports to discuss countermeasures against illegal ticket sales and has been holding meetings with officials from major theatres and performance arts venues across the country.

Ticket scalping in South Korea has been an ongoing problem - especially in the era of digital ticketing. In an interview with The Korea Herald last year, Yoon Dong-hwan, Chair of the Record Label Industry Association of Korea, said that more than 50%of the tickets from sold-out performances typically go to scalpers.

The revision of the performance law follows complaints that ticket scalping via bots had remained in a legal blind spot since legal punishment for such acts had only been stipulated in a law introduced half a century ago. Prior to the revision, illegal sales of tickets were only punishable by the Article 3 of the Punishment for Minor Offense Act, which does not address online sales.

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Images: Concept for the auditorium at the planned Busan arena (top, credit: Live Nation) and the campaign image distributed by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism sends messages against ticket scalping (below, credit: Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism).