BTS concert ticket scalping is surging, with seats for a free Gwanghwamun show being resold for hundreds of thousands of won and scalped prices for an Arirang concert in Goyang nearing 1 million won. The market has effectively turned BTS tickets into a money-making bazaar, industry officials said, questioning whether the government’s response is working and arguing that safeguards remain inadequate as resale platforms are effectively left untouched.
On Thursday, social media was filled with posts offering BTS tickets for resale, including seats that were originally distributed for free.
On X, scalping appeared to be conducted openly. As of Thursday, posts claiming to transfer tickets for the Gwanghwamun comeback show were posted in succession, and simple keyword searches made sales channels easy to find. Sellers said they could hand over tickets through methods they described as “account transfer” and “wristband transfer,” and solicited buyers.
Despite the visibility of such sales on social media, enforcement appeared to be falling short. Industry voices criticized the situation, saying, “The scalping market is effectively running circles around government enforcement.”
Scalped tickets are also widespread for “BTS World Tour Arirang in Goyang,” scheduled for April 9-12. Face-value tickets are priced from 198,000 won to 264,000 won, but resale prices have jumped severalfold.
Listings were easy to find not only on social media but also on Ticketbay, described as the country’s largest ticket-transfer platform. On the platform, resale prices ranged from 390,000 won to 999,000 won per seat — about two to three times the original price.
Traders have also exploited a loophole after Ticketbay introduced a “price cap” in January limiting single-ticket transactions to under 1 million won. Sellers have posted tickets at 999,000 won — exactly 1,000 won below the ceiling — fueling criticism that a formal cap alone is unlikely to curb scalping.
Industry officials said weak platform regulation and enforcement have left scalping “effectively abandoned in plain sight.” They noted that while the government has recently declared a war on scalping, tickets are still being resold widely in the market.
Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Choi Hwi-young has described scalping as a “longstanding chronic disease” of the cultural industry and has pledged a tough response. The government is pushing revisions to the Performance Act and the National Sports Promotion Act to sharply raise penalties, including fines of up to 50 times the scalped sales amount and allowing confiscation and recovery of profits gained through illicit sales.
But critics say the bills were drafted quickly and lack detailed enforcement rules. On the ground, many say current measures are insufficient to root out scalping, arguing that tougher punishment alone — while leaving online scalping platforms as they are — is unlikely to be effective.
An industry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, “It is welcome that recent legal revisions make it possible to sanction scalping transactions,” but added, “It makes no sense to say you will catch scalpers while leaving a situation where scalped tickets are openly traded on platforms such as Ticketbay.” The official said the broader ticket distribution system needs an overhaul, including a crackdown on scalping platforms and stronger identity verification procedures comparable to airline ticketing.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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