Two district courts issued opposing verdicts over ticket scalping, with one dismissing a case over entrapment and the other issuing a NT$6,000 fine.
The cases in Taichung and Chiayi involved tickets to the opening game of the Asian Baseball Championship between Taiwan and South Korea at Taipei Dome on Dec. 3.
In Chiayi, a defendant surnamed Lin (林) bought four tickets to the match for NT$2,400, which he then posted for sale online at a higher price, the Chiayi District Court said in its ruling.
Photo: CNA
Police discovered the posting and negotiated to buy the tickets for NT$8,000, it said.
Plainclothes officers then arrested Lin when meeting to pick up the tickets, and pressed charges under the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法), the court said.
Lin during questioning admitted to purchasing the tickets in order to resell in contravention of Article 64 of the act, which prohibits purchasing tickets “with no intention to use and reselling them for profits,” it said, fining Lin NT$6,000 and confiscating the tickets.
However, in a similar case in Taichung, judges ruled that police impersonating a buyer online constituted entrapment.
The officers never had the intention to buy and never completed the purchase, meaning the defendant was only guilty of an attempted crime, which is not covered in the act and therefore not punishable, the Taichung District Court said in its ruling.
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