The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Tuesday that it has referred 15 people to police after analyzing reports and monitoring data on online ticket scalping for performances and professional sports collected from January 5 to June 16 this year, identifying signs of bulk sales.
According to the ministry, the referral focused on suspected illegal sales of performance and professional sports tickets posted on major secondhand trading platforms, in which a single account repeatedly sold tickets for multiple games or sold tickets for a specific game in batches of dozens.
The ministry analyzed bulk sellers based on reports submitted to the "Online Scalping Report Center" run by the Korea Creative Content Agency and the Korea Professional Sports Association, as well as monitoring data from major platforms, examining sales accounts, the number of sales, the scale of sales for the same game, sales amounts, and ticketing source information. As a result, some sellers were found to have a total of 100 sales transactions and estimated sales amounts exceeding 5 million won, and signs of one seller selling dozens of tickets for a single game were also confirmed.
The ministry explained, "We view this pattern of bulk sales as exceeding the scope of ordinary individual transfers or normal ticket booking, and in cases where a large number of tickets for the same game were sold, it is difficult to rule out the possibility that the seller purchased the tickets through illegal methods such as automated programs."
The ministry plans to continue cooperating with online platforms, ticketing services, and professional sports organizations to monitor transactions suspected of using automated programs, such as bulk sales and repeated sales, and to actively provide cases requiring investigation to relevant agencies.
In addition, the ministry is continuing to prepare for the August 28 enforcement of the revised Performance Act and the National Sports Promotion Act, including the development of subordinate legislation covering mandatory measures to prevent illegal transactions, penalty surcharges, and report rewards, as well as the operation of reporting agencies. The revised laws prohibit all illegal transactions regardless of whether macro programs are used, and significantly strengthen the level of punishment by introducing penalty surcharges of up to 50 times the sales amount and a report reward system.
Minister Choi Hwi-young said, according to the ministry, "We will cooperate with investigative agencies to take strict action, starting with suspected macro-use cases that can be addressed under current laws, and will respond with all our resources to eradicate ticket scalping in line with the enforcement of the revised laws."
