The Busan Metropolitan Police Agency will conduct an intensive crackdown on ticket scalping at the BTS concert site for two days starting June 12, the agency said Sunday.
Police plan to organize six teams totaling more than 70 officers around the Busan Asiad Main Stadium, where the concert will be held, to thoroughly monitor covert transactions. Anyone caught scalping tickets at the venue will be subject to punishment. Those who purchase tickets using a macro, an automated input program, and resell them at a premium may face charges of violating the National Sports Promotion Act and the Performances Act.
The crackdown follows the government's policy of "eradicating crimes that disrupt prices affecting ordinary people's livelihoods." "Ticket scalping is not only a crime that harms the economy of ordinary citizens, but it also deprives K-pop fans at home and abroad of fair opportunities and negatively affects South Korea's national image," a police official said.
Earlier, the Busan agency had also launched an investigation into suspicions that some lodging businesses canceled existing reservations ahead of the concert and resold them at higher prices. The Busan agency's Anti-Corruption and Economic Crime Investigation Unit announced on June 2 that it was investigating fraud allegations against some lodging businesses in its jurisdiction. The businesses are suspected of unilaterally canceling existing reservations immediately after the BTS concert was announced and then reselling rooms at sharply increased rates.
