BLACKPINK performed at the Kaohsiung World Games main venue in March this year. 90,000 tickets were sold out in an instant, and the various prices of scalpers ignited public grievances.

(Extracted from BLACKPINK Facebook)

[Reporter Yang Chengyu/Taipei Report] It is hard to get tickets for the concerts of popular singers at home and abroad, and it is even more common for "scalpers" to rob fans after searching for tickets, causing public resentment.

The Legislative Yuan will pass the third reading of the "Cultural and Creative Industry Development Law" today (12th), prohibiting the sale of art and cultural performance tickets at a price exceeding the face value or fixed price, and violators may be fined up to 50 times the price.

Those who use computers and other related equipment to buy and collect tickets with false information or other improper methods, such as using scanning (grabbing) ticket robots, etc., can be sentenced to a fixed-term imprisonment of not more than 3 years or a fine of not more than 3 million yuan.

According to the new article 10-1 of the "Cultural and Creative Industry Development Law", the artistic and cultural performance tickets referred to in this article refer to the public sales of live music, drama, dance or other forms of artistic and cultural performances. Bearer or registered securities for which consumers receive consideration, or their ticket booking or ticket collection certificates.

In addition, due to the characteristics of exclusive supply and limited quantity of artistic performance tickets for a certain period of time, the supply of tickets for popular performances often exceeds the demand. Therefore, this article only regulates cultural and cultural performance tickets for cultural and creative industries.

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The act of reselling art and cultural performance tickets at high prices to make huge profits has seriously violated the rights and interests of consumers to participate in art and cultural activities at a reasonable price; The administrative penalty for profit-seeking behavior is too light, and it is difficult to curb the profiteering behavior of art and cultural performance ticket scalpers.

Therefore, fines are clearly imposed on the act of selling art and cultural performance tickets at a higher price to obtain profits.

In addition, after the implementation of the revised law, those who sell art and cultural performance tickets at a price exceeding the face value or at a fixed price as mentioned in this law shall include the handling fees and postage fees paid for buying or reselling tickets through any channel Sales amount calculation.

Considering that the illegal gains of scalpers are huge profits, a fine of 10 to 50 times is imposed.

Nowadays, art and cultural performance tickets are mostly sold through online platforms. Scalpers often use the collection of other people’s ID numbers, random ID generators, or a large number of fake accounts to buy tickets or use plug-in programs, such as ticket-sweeping robots to buy tickets in large quantities, affecting The general public is entitled to a fair opportunity to buy tickets.

However, the use of computer programs to buy tickets and increase the speed of ticket purchases in an irregular manner, similar to the use of fraud to interfere with the ticket sales system to quickly grab tickets and circumvent the upper limit of ticket purchases, has constituted a disruption to the order of the ticket market and infringed on ordinary people's fair opportunity to obtain tickets.

Therefore, after the law is amended, it will also be regulated, and penalties will be sacrificed.

With regard to assisting in promoting the normal circulation of arts and cultural performance tickets and maintaining market order, the competent authority may provide appropriate assistance, rewards and subsidies to cultural and creative undertakings.

The competent authorities may ask the police to send personnel to assist in investigating or cracking down on related violations; and for reporting and uncovering related violations, after the revision of the law, it is also clearly stipulated that the whistleblower’s identity information should be kept strictly confidential, and rewards can be given as appropriate.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wu Siyao said that the concert economy has brought business opportunities to Taiwan's arts and culture industry and local development, but it has also brought about the disadvantages of cattle getting fatter and bigger.

In the past, the scalpers could not be punished, and they were not afraid of being punished; in the future, we will allow the scalpers to be punished, and the punishment will be even more painful!

Wu Siyao said that there are four major packages for the investigation of scalpers, which are respectively expanded and standardized by means of "clearly stipulated in the law" and "accompanying resolutions".

First of all, for the part of strengthening the investigation, after the revision of the law, the criminal status of scalpers will be clarified, and the penalty will be increased. Illegal profits can be punished by 10 times to 50 times the amount of the ticket. For the behavior of sweeping a large number of tickets in an illegal way, the sentence will be punished with imprisonment for less than three years. and a fine of not more than 3 million yuan.

In addition, set up a reporting system, give whistleblowers a reward for reporting, and the people will catch scalpers together.

Wu Siyao also mentioned that the Ministry of Culture will also be instructed to promote a real-name system for ticket sales that is encouraged but not mandatory, and the incentives will be increased through subsidies.

In addition, the Ministry of Culture will also be urged to establish a ticket exchange platform with a transparent, open, and reasonable ticket exchange mechanism to ensure the normal flow of tickets for art exhibitions and performances.

However, Wu Siyao also emphasized that she advocates the study and formulation of the "Special Law on the Prevention and Control of Scalpers", and then expands and integrates the existing "Railway Law" and "Social Maintenance Law". Combating traffic, art, sports, medical care and even more emerging scalper crime categories, integrating all policy tools of the inter-ministerial committee, strengthening investigations and arrests, will be more effective in cracking down on scalpers.