TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Anyone caught reselling a cultural performance ticket for personal profit will face fines of 10 to 50 times the original price of the ticket, the Cabinet decided Thursday (April 6).
The latest proposal arose after incidents of ticket scalping for concerts by K-pop supergroup Blackpink in Kaohsiung City last month, with at least one person trying to sell tickets for NT$400,000 (US$13,100) a piece, or 40 times the retail value.
People using online algorithms to buy large quantities of tickets for resale would face prison sentences of up to three years or fines of up to NT$3 million. The Cabinet approved the relevant amendments to the Development of the Cultural and Creative Industries Act during its regular weekly meeting on Thursday morning.
The government scrapped an earlier proposal to allow people to resell tickets for a “reasonable” profit of up to 10%, the Liberty Times reported. According to the Ministry of Culture, a plan for the real-name registration of ticket buyers was also dropped as there had been complaints about long lines and added waiting times of two to three hours for events which already use the system.