Cases of ticket scalping for performances have decreased after the introduction of regulations in June last year, Deputy Minister of Culture Sue Wang (王時思) said yesterday.
Amendments to the Cultural and Creative Industry Development Act (文化創意產業發展法), which raised fines for scalpers, were passed in May last year and took effect the following month.
Under the amendments, people selling tickets to performances at inflated prices can be fined 10 to 50 times the original value of the scalped tickets, up to a maximum of NT$3 million (US$92,143), and sentenced to up to three years in jail.
Photo courtesy of B’in Music
Since the amendments were adopted, the number of scalping cases reported to the ministry and the difference between the resale and original price of tickets have decreased, Wang said at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
The issue gained national attention after an engineer was last week arrested for developing software to help people purchase tickets online quickly.
From June 2 last year to April 1, the ministry received 131 reports of scalping in which people used false information or other improper means, such as computer programs, to purchase tickets to performances, Wang said.
Eight cases have been filed for investigation, three were submitted to district prosecutors’ offices, two were dismissed and the remainder are under investigation, she said.
Over the period, 2,105 cases of scalping were reported, and 609 valid cases were handed over to local governments for investigation, Wang said.
Local governments have completed investigations into 300 cases, along with other independent cases that were not handed over by the ministry, she said.
Fines totaling NT$2,084,490 have been imposed in 30 cases, she said.
The ministry encourages ticketing platforms and the organizers of performances to use a real-name ticketing systems, which it subsidizes, Wang said.
Twenty events have received the subsidy so far this year, including concerts by Japanese pop duo Yoasobi, Japanese singer-songwriter Minami and South Korean singer-songwriter IU, she said.
To help local government officials better handle scalping cases, the ministry held a briefing session and three training sessions last year, and has held three training sessions in northern, central and southern Taiwan so far this year, Wang said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) voiced concerns about the new tactics being used to resell tickets, such as giving them out as freebies with other goods.
In response, Wang said that the ministry would consult with relevant agencies and put forward guidelines regarding the issue within a month.
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper