The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has taken legal action against individuals found to have illegally resold BTS concert tickets, the ministry said on Wednesday.

The Culture Ministry identified 1,868 posts on online secondhand marketplaces that resold tickets for the boy band's concerts in Gwanghwamun on March 21 and Goyang, Gyeonggi, in early April.


Four of the posts were suspected of offering 105 tickets at inflated prices and were referred to the National Police Agency for investigation.

All four performances allow only one ticket per person, which cannot be transferred to anyone else. Strict on-site identity verification measures will also make it effectively impossible to attend the shows with scalped tickets.

For example, tickets for the Gwanghwamun performance are in the form of mobile QR codes that cannot be screenshotted or reissued. Attendees will be required to verify that their identity matches the name on their ticket and be given a wristband to wear, which cannot be reattached once removed.

Organizers warned that they would also conduct random identity checks inside the venue.

The Culture Ministry is making efforts to prohibit ticket scalping on a broader scale through amendments to the Public Performance Act and the National Sports Promotion Act.

The revisions are scheduled to take effect on Aug. 28, after which all unfair ticket transactions, including the use of automated input computer programs known as macros, will be prohibited by law. Under the amendments, violators may face administrative fines of up to 50 times the sale amount, and money incentives will be introduced to encourage people to report cases of illegal ticket sales.

The Culture Ministry launched a public-private consultative body involving related government agencies and associations, major ticketing companies and online secondhand marketplaces to draft regulations, conduct public awareness campaigns and monitor illegal ticket sales.

The ministry also again urged organizers, ticketing agencies and online platform operators to delete posts that violate ticket reservation policies and to enforce strict on-site identity checks and other oversight measures. Joonggonara, an online secondhand marketplace, has deleted scalping posts related to the BTS shows and filtered out related keywords since Wednesday.

“Ticket scalping is a problem that can be solved if no one is willing to buy [scalped tickets],” Culture Minister Chae Hwi-young said. “They also serve a high risk of fraud, as sellers tend to disappear after payment, so tickets should always be purchased through official channels.”

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]