An online platform to report ticket scalping has been established to protect people’s rights to purchase tickets to events, the Ministry of Culture said yesterday as legislative amendments took effect.
The amendments to the Cultural and Creative Industry Development Act (文化創意產業發展法) were introduced following reports of rampant ticket scalping during several concerts after the roll-back of restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ministry said it would work with the National Police Agency, the Criminal Investigation Bureau’s Ninth Investigation Corps, and local authorities and police departments to combat ticket scalping.
Photo: CNA
Any sale of tickets for arts and humanities events exceeding the set price, including by bartering or setting prerequisites for a purchase, would be considered scalping if the person making the sale would make a profit, the ministry said.
Ticket scalpers would be fined 10 to 50 times the value of any tickets sold, the ministry said.
Those found sweeping up tickets online using software or other methods outside the norm, including using falsified information, would be imprisoned for up to three years, fined NT$3 million (US$97,863) or both, it said.
The ministry said it is working with concert organizers and its efforts have resulted in the organizers for concerts by South Korean performers The Boyz, (G)I-dle and Taeyeon implementing strict real-name systems for tickets.
The ministry said it would also ask the Taipei and Kaohsiung city governments to implement real-name systems for concerts at the five major venues in their jurisdictions: Taipei Arena, Taipei Music Center, K-Arena, Kaohsiung National Stadium and Kaohsiung Music Center.
Not all concerts would require implementation of real-name systems, the ministry said.
Venue managers should consider including assessments of the possibility of incidents affecting law and order at events during the application process, it said.
The Ninth Investigation Corps said it would assist online ticket platforms with efforts to shore up digital security.
It would be easier to deter and track ticket sweeping if systems were monitoring the platforms, it said.
Minister of Culture Shih Che (史哲) said that legal proceedings were “the last resort,” and the ministry hoped that organizers and online platforms would have sufficient safeguards to deter ticket scalping.
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
Deliveries of delayed F-16V jets are expected to begin in September, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today, after senior defense officials visited the US last week. The US in 2019 approved a US$8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the nation’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, but the project has been hit by issues including software problems. Koo appeared today before a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which is discussing different versions of the special defense budget this week. The committee is questioning officials today,
TALENT SCOUTING: The university is investing substantial funds in its future to bring in the kind of researchers that would keep the college internationally competitive National Taiwan University (NTU) plans to invest NT$2 billion (US$62.6 million) to launch two programs aimed at attracting and retaining top research talent, university president Chen Wen-chang (陳文章) said yesterday. The funding would support the “Palm Grove Scholars Project,” which targets academics aged 40 to 55. Up to 20 scholars would be selected, each receiving as much as NT$10 million annually, Chen said. The initiative is designed to attract leading researchers to Taiwan and strengthen NTU’s global competitiveness by fostering a more research-friendly environment and expanding international collaboration, he said. NTU is also introducing a “Hong Hu” chair grant, which would provide Palm
RSS