Crackdown Limits Hit as Online Scalpers Evolve; Fines and Penalties to Be Overhauled
Creatrip Team
4 months ago
South Korea is moving to strengthen enforcement against online ticket scalping as existing criminal penalties have proven weak and detection is difficult. Lawmakers plan to revise the 공연법 (Performances Act) and 체육진흥법 (Sports Promotion Act) to shift from criminal punishment to administrative sanctions—higher fines and penalties—so authorities can quickly block illegal profit. Prosecutors and investigators struggle to catch scalpers: from 2023 to Aug 2024 only 306 of 5,405 reported cases were confirmed as overprice trades. Scalpers increasingly use advanced macros and other techniques that evade security and are hard to prove in court. Current laws dating back decades mainly targeted on-site resales and left online marketplaces underregulated until recent amendments; even now, proving macro use hampers prosecutions. The planned re-revision would treat any ticket sold above face value as an illegal scalped ticket (removing the need to prove macro use) and rely on 과징금·과태료 (administrative fines and penalties) for faster, more effective deterrence. Experts also call for changes to the Information and Communications Network Act to cover use of macros, since existing rules target only programs that damage or disrupt systems, not high-traffic automation used for scalping.
