Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, 'Professional Baseball' and other online scalpers referred to police for investigation: "Reselling for a profit → Clearly illegal"

*This content was translated by AI.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has launched a strong legal response against online scalpers disrupting the fair order of the professional sports and performance ticketing markets, including professional baseball.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Minister Choi Hwi-young, hereinafter Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) announced on the 24th that it referred 15 scalpers, whose bulk-selling activities were clearly confirmed, to the police for investigation on the 23rd, based on an analysis of online scalping reports and monitoring data received from January 5 to June 16 regarding professional sports and performances.

According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, this investigation referral focused primarily on suspected cases of illegal resale that were particularly rampant in the highly successful regular season of professional baseball (KBO League). Cases included repeatedly listing tickets for multiple games under the same account on second-hand trading platforms or selling dozens of tickets for popular team games in bulk at once.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism conducted a comprehensive analysis of reports received through the 'Online Scalping Report Center' operated by the Korea Professional Sports Association and the Korea Creative Content Agency, along with platform monitoring data. Tracking sales accounts, transaction counts, the scale and amount of sales for specific games, and ticketing source information revealed that some sellers had over 100 transactions with an estimated total amount exceeding 5 million won. Even instances where scalpers secured and sold dozens of tickets for a single game were detected.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism determined that such bulk sales exceeded the scope of ordinary individual transfers and highly likely involved the illegal use of automated programs (macros) for mass ticket booking. Accordingly, relevant data was handed over to the police to clarify whether macros were used and how the tickets were secured.

Penalties for scalping transactions, which have sparked public outrage among baseball fans, are expected to become even stricter in the future. This is because the revised 'National Sports Promotion Act' and 'Performance Act' will come into full effect on August 28.

This is because it is being fully implemented.

Once the revised laws take effect, all scalping and illegal trading activities will be completely prohibited, regardless of whether macro programs were used, unlike existing laws. Violators will face administrative fines of up to 50 times the sales amount, and a reward system for reporting scalping will also be introduced to help eradicate the practice.

Minister Choi Hwi-young of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism emphasized, "Repeatedly securing large quantities of tickets and reselling them for a profit deprives baseball fans and performance attendees of their legitimate viewing opportunities and disrupts the ticketing order, constituting illegal activity." He added, "We will cooperate closely with law enforcement authorities to strictly handle suspected macro cases under the current legal framework and will make all-out efforts to uproot scalping transactions in line with the implementation of the revised laws in August."

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*This content was translated by AI.