Cities give backing to plans for curbing ticket scalping: Ministry

Taipei, Jan. 2 (CNA) Several major cities have backed measures incentivizing the use of real-name registration for concerts at publicly owned venues in a bid to curb ticket scalping, the Ministry of Culture said Thursday.

The agreement to adopt or drum up interest in the anti-scalping measures came following a meeting with representatives from Taiwan's six special municipalities in mid-December, 2024, the ministry said in a statement.

Some of the proposed incentives include making real-name registration part of rental contracts or letting promoters who use such a system for concerts with more than 10,000 tickets rent publicly owned venues at a discount, the ministry said.

According to the ministry, the Taipei City government said it planned to grant promoters requiring real-name registration to buy tickets for concerts held at eligible venues or during the busy season discounted rent.

Meanwhile, the Kaohsiung City government has also agreed to work toward adopting similar measures for the venues it oversees, the ministry said.

The ministry added that it would continue to help promoters cover the costs of implementing real-name registration for buying tickets.

Ticket scalping has plagued several high-profile concerts in Taiwan in recent years.

In one notable case, scalped tickets were found sold online for Mandopop singer Jay Chou's (周杰倫) December 2024 concerts at the Taipei Dome, with resale prices as high as NT$300,000 -- more than 43 times the face value.

Police later arrested several people for allegedly scalping tickets to Chou's concerts.

Under an amendment to the Development of the Cultural and Creative Industries Act that cleared the legislative floor in May 2023, people who resell tickets to cultural or artistic events at inflated prices could be fined 10 to 50 times the ticket's original value, while those who use proxies to secure tickets face a prison term of up to three years and/or a potential fine of up to NT$3 million.