New regulations could see whistleblowers against scalping receive a reward of up to NT$100,000 (US$3,181), the Ministry of Education’s Sports Administration said.
Authorities in local cities and counties should launch investigations within two months of whistle-blowers delivering all necessary documents, according to the Regulations on Rewards for Reporting Violations for Tickets at Sport Competitions and Events (運動賽事或活動票券違規案件檢舉處理及獎勵辦法), recently promulgated by the Sports Administration.
The regulations were announced to support the amended Sports Industry Development Act (運動產業發展條例).
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Amendments to the Sports Industry Development Act in December last year saw the addition of Article 24-1, which would punish ticket scalpers by mandating that they pay 10 to 50 times the price per ticket sold.
The administration said that ordering tickets or obtaining proof of ticket purchases via computers or other equipment could be punished with a prison sentence of up to three years, alongside a NT$3 million fine.
The reward would give whistleblowers 20 percent of any fines, up to NT$100,000.
Whistle-blowers would also be eligible to receive NT$100,000 if they report incidents of people obtaining tickets using false information.
The reward regulations also state that the jurisdiction of scalping incidents would go to local authorities holding the competition or event, and if events are held in multiple locations, the authorities of the first event location would oversee the case.
Reports may be in written or verbal form, and should be logged and recorded according to the regulations.
The regulations say that the whistle-blower should include their name, address, the Web site or organization’s name, the address of the offending organization, the location and time of the competition, or the event’s name.
The regulations say that whistle-blowers would not receive a cash reward if the incident they reported had been covered by the media or was already under investigation by law enforcement agencies.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS