SEOUL — South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) has referred 170 individuals to the police on charges of illegal ticket scalping for performances and sporting events. This marks the first major wave of police referrals since the implementation of a revised law in August that significantly strengthened penalties for scalping.

Authorities estimate that the suspects attempted to sell approximately 11,000 tickets with a total estimated value exceeding 1 billion won (approx. $720,000 USD).

On October 7, the MCST announced that it requested police investigations on the previous day for 170 individuals whose attempts to sell tickets above face value—or in massive quantities—were confirmed through the analysis of scalping reports collected by the Korea Creative Content Agency and the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation.

The referred suspects consist of 121 individuals in the professional sports sector and 49 in the performance/entertainment sector. Together, they attempted to offload 11,032 tickets with an expected sales value of 1,028,749,000 won.

Professional sports accounted for the vast majority of the illegal tickets, with 10,660 tickets valued at 929.25 million won. Performances accounted for 372 tickets valued at 99.5 million won.

Key Highlights of the Crackdown:

Platform Source: Approximately 68% of the suspects (115 people) were reported based on listings registered on the ticket-trading platform Ticket Bay.
Large-Scale Scalping: In some cases, a single individual attempted massive scalping operations across multiple listings. One sports scalper attempted to sell up to 1,018 tickets worth 101.48 million won, while a performance scalper tried to sell up to 109 tickets worth 19.1 million won.
"Loophole" Transmutations: Four individuals engaged in newly emerging "variant sales" methods to evade the law, such as tacking on excessive handling fees, convenience fees, or forcing "bundle sales" with other products. The MCST ruled that regardless of the nominal transaction form, any practice amounting to illegal secondary trading is subject to punishment.

Stronger Legal Penalties and Surging Reports

Under the revised Performance Act and National Sports Promotion Act, illegal ticket sales are subject to administrative fines of up to 50 times the total sales amount. Furthermore, the law offers financial incentives for whistleblowers: up to 50 million won for reporting illegal purchases, and up to 50% of the penalty amount for reporting illegal sales.

Public reports of ticket scalping have surged dramatically following the law's enforcement. Between August 28—the effective date of the revised law—and October 1, reporting centers received roughly 68,000 complaints. This averages out to about 2,000 reports per day, representing a staggering 17-fold increase compared to previous years.

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