Updated: September 21, 2026
102 and 1,868.
Both numbers have appeared around BTS’s ARIRANG tour, but they do not count the same thing.
The first is the number of scalping reports filed for the tour with KOCCA’s reporting board between September 2025 and August 27, 2026—the highest total for any event in that period.
The second is the number of online posts the Culture Ministry identified as suspected illegal ticket-sale activity connected to BTS shows.
The date separating those numbers from Korea’s new rules matters just as much: the amended Performance Act took effect on August 28.
That means the headline figures explain the pressure behind the law. They do not tell us whether the law has already worked.
The New Law Is More Specific Than “Resale Above Face Value”
The amended Performance Act separates improper purchase from improper sale.
Improper purchase covers buying tickets for resale by technically bypassing or interfering with the fair purchasing process set by the original seller—for example, through technical circumvention of security measures.
Improper sale is defined differently. It covers unauthorized resale or brokerage above the seller’s purchase price when it is done habitually or as a business.
For improper sale, Korea can impose an administrative surcharge reaching up to 50 times the sale amount.
A single resale cannot be classified correctly from the words “above face value” alone. The law asks how the ticket was acquired and how the resale activity was conducted.
It is equally inaccurate to reduce the new framework to “a bot ban.” Technical circumvention is part of improper purchase, but habitual or business-like resale is a separate part of the law.
For Overseas Fans, the Law and the Door Are Different Questions
A legal rule about ticket resale does not replace an organizer’s admission terms.
A concert can separately impose conditions around identity, ticket names, transfers, memberships or special packages. Those rules belong to the event and ticket seller, and they can be stricter than the question a fan is asking about resale law.
So a secondary-market ticket has to survive two different tests:
Will this ticket satisfy the event’s own admission rules?
A ticket can be genuine and still create an entry problem. And a restrictive transfer policy does not, by itself, answer every legal question about the transaction.
For an international buyer, collapsing those two layers is one of the easiest ways to misunderstand the risk.
BTS WORLD TOUR ‘ARIRANG’ IN BUSAN Sketch
This BANGTANTV tour sketch is not evidence for the law; it is here to show the scale and physical fan experience behind the ticket demand the regulation is trying to address.
102 Reports and 1,868 Suspected Posts Are Not One Statistic
The 1,868 suspected online posts are not 1,868 proven crimes or 1,868 confirmed offenders.
A formal report count and government monitoring of suspected listings measure different things. Combining them into one dramatic number would make the story simpler—and less accurate.
The difference still tells us something useful. Resale activity moves through secondhand platforms, social media and overseas sites faster than formal complaints can capture it.
The August 28 framework also strengthened the responsibilities of ticket sellers and intermediaries, while adding reporting and enforcement mechanisms around improper purchasing and sales.
Those measures now have to generate their own evidence.
The First Change Was the Regulatory Baseline
BTS topping the report list is a powerful headline because demand made the problem unusually visible.
It is not proof that the August 28 law succeeded. It is not proof that it failed.
What changed first was the baseline. Korea now defines improper purchasing and habitual or business-like improper resale more explicitly, and gives the authorities a stronger framework for treating scalping as a regulatory problem rather than an unavoidable irritation around popular events.
The law began on August 28. The numbers that can tell us what it changed in practice have to begin after that date.
Busan, at a Much Slower Speed
After ticket rules and enforcement language, Marvin Samaco’s 2026 Busan vlog returns the city to cafés, shopping and the easy pace fans rarely see from a stadium seat.
Sources
- Yonhap News Agency — BTS ARIRANG tops ticket-scalping reports
- Korea National Law Information Center — Performance Act Article 4-2
- Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism — anti-scalping rules effective August 28
- Korea National Law Information Center — Performance Act Enforcement Decree
- Law and reporting context checked September 16, 2026. This article provides general information, not individual legal advice.
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