Chung Junho: “Effective Enforcement Measures Needed”
The ‘BTS World Tour Arirang in Los Angeles’ concert held at SoFi Stadium in California, USA, on the 1st-2nd and 5th-6th (local time). Provided by Big Hit Music
The BTS world tour “ARIRANG” was found to be the most reported performance for online ticket scalping over the past year. While there were 102 official reports of scalping, the number of online scalping sale posts verified by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism reached 1,868—over 18 times higher.
According to data submitted by the Korea Creative Content Agency to Democratic Party lawmaker Chung Junho, a member of the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports, and Tourism Committee, as of September 10, 2026, 102 scalping reports related to “ARIRANG” were filed from September 2025 to August 27, 2026. This was followed by PSY’s “Soaked Show” with 88 cases, Big Bang’s 20th Anniversary Concert with 69, Lim Youngwoong’s National Tour with 64, and Day6’s Special Concert with 51. The Oasis concert in Korea received 48 reports, and The Weeknd’s concert 44.
Looking at scalping reports over the most recent three years, Na Huna’s retirement concert topped the list with 233 cases. Bruno Mars’s concert in Korea in 2023 followed with 204, and the virtual group Plave’s fan concert accounted for 180. The g.o.d. concert recorded 177, and PSY’s “Soaked Show” posted 161.
Between January 2023 and August 2026, the Korea Creative Content Agency received 7,639 concert scalping reports through its online reporting board. The music sector accounted for 5,751 cases, or 75.3%. The “other” category, which includes fan meetings and movie stage greetings, recorded 1,188 cases (15.6%), while musicals totaled 423 (5.5%), and games 277 (3.6%).
Of all reported transactions, 6,098 cases—79.8%—took place on secondhand trading platforms such as Karrot Market, Ticketbay, Bungaejangter, and Joonggonara. Transactions reported through social networking services (SNS) such as X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and Telegram totaled 1,541 cases (20.2%).
However, only a small number of cases have led to police investigations. Since 2022, the Ministry has only referred four instances, involving eleven accounts, to the police for investigation—twice in 2024 and twice in 2026. Lawmaker Chung cited the fact that valid reports enabling identification of ticket issuance details, such as booking numbers, accounted for at most 10% of all reports as the main reason.
Since August 28, 2026, violators can now be fined up to 50 times the amount of illegal profits from ticket scalping, with up to 50% of the imposed fine paid as a reward to the informant. Lawmaker Chung also pointed out that it is difficult to crack down on overseas ticket scalpers under domestic law when they sell tickets to foreigners or overseas residents through Chinese or American sites.
Hot Picks Today
“Don’t Say ‘Americano’ Anymore” After the Uproar… Now a Surge in ‘Patriotic Spending’ Sweeps Canada
He stated, “Scalpers are becoming increasingly sophisticated, disguising high-priced scalped tickets as merchandise sales, making it difficult for current regulations alone to keep up. Effective new measures are needed to crack down on emerging types of ticket scalping.”
This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.
© The Asia Business Daily. All rights reserved. Unauthorized AI training and use prohibited.
