The Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee yesterday passed a preliminary review of proposed amendments to the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法) raising penalties for ticket scalping, noise disturbances and stalking offenses.
The maximum fine for unauthorized reselling of transportation or entertainment tickets not intended for personal use would be increased from NT$18,000 to NT$30,000, the draft amendment says.
The committee also approved a resolution calling on authorities to propose within two months amendments targeting the scalping of medical, hospitality, and other voucher-based products and services.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
The resolution states that while the act generally handles minor offenses through administrative penalties, scalping can involve “substantial illegal gains and seriously harm the interests of consumers.”
The changes were proposed by committee members Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋), Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) and Lin Szu-ming (林思銘) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) alongside independent Legislator May Chin (高金素梅).
Opposing the proposed changes, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) told the meeting that legislation on the scalping of tickets for cultural and sports events is already covered under the Development of the Cultural and Creative Industries Act (文化創意產業發展法) and the Sport Industry Development Act (運動產業發展條例).
Illegally reselling medical and hospitality vouchers should be regulated under separate laws set by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to “avoid excessive administrative discretion by police,” she added.
Liu also warned against listing multiple kinds of tickets in the law, saying it risked overlooking some categories.
Separately, the committee approved a clause raising the maximum fine for noise disturbances from NT$6,000 to NT$10,000.
The proposal was introduced by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) caucus and KMT Legislator Chiu Jo-hua (邱若華), who said that current fines are too low to be an effective deterrent.
In another amendment, KMT legislators Lu Ming-che (魯明哲) and Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) proposed increasing fines for “stalking another person without justifiable reasons, despite having been dissuaded,” from NT$3,000 to NT$30,000.
The 14-member committee approved the proposed increases following cross-party discussions.
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