Where is the difficulty in rectifying scalpers?, Jay Chou concert ticket scalpers detained for 15 days

The police in Yingze, Taiyuan have arrested an illegal person who resells valuable tickets.

On September 19th, the police in Yingze, Taiyuan, Shanxi reported that the Qiaodong Police Station had arrested an illegal person who was reselling valuable tickets.

After review, since the beginning of this year, Wang has purchased concert tickets for celebrities such as Jay Chou from various places through WeChat groups and other online channels. Each ticket has been sold at an additional price of 200 to 500 yuan, with a total of over 200 tickets for more than 20 concerts sold, with a case value of over 60000 yuan.

The violator Wang has been administratively detained for 15 days and fined 1000 yuan for public security, and this case is still under further processing.

The picture shows scalpers selling tickets to Jay Chou's concert in Taiyuan on a second-hand trading platform.

There are many scalpers like Wang. From September 21st to 24th, Jay Chou held four consecutive concerts in Taiyuan, but the audience still struggled to secure a single ticket. Meanwhile, in the past seven months since the invoice was issued on February 27th, scalpers have claimed on various second-hand platforms and social media platforms that tickets are available at various prices and dates, with each ticket priced at an additional 500 to 3000 yuan.

On September 20th, the day before the concert, on a second-hand platform, the reporter attempted to contact several scalpers. The original ticket price of 600 yuan was increased to 2000 yuan, and the original ticket price of 2000 yuan was increased to 5500 yuan.

Not only does it involve reselling tickets, but the business of scalpers is ubiquitous. For example, this summer, the Shanxi Museum experienced a peak of visits and there were instances of scalpers charging fees indiscriminately. Recently, Taiyuan, Jinzhong and other places in Shanxi Province have launched a new round of online appointments for the nine valent HPV vaccine. Some scalpers claim that they can make appointments on behalf of other cities in Shanxi Province, all of which are regular public hospitals and communities. They cannot arrange full refunds, and even those who are over age can make appointments on behalf of others. In addition, as the Double Festivals approach and people's travel needs increase, scalpers have even started thinking about high-speed rail tickets.

The picture shows the information about purchasing the nine valent HPV vaccine on a social media platform called "scalpers".

Selling tickets from scalpers is not a new thing. This year, as the performance market recovers and people's cultural demand increases, scalpers have become increasingly arrogant, seriously disrupting the normal market order and triggering more discussions among the public about the chaos of scalpers.

On September 13th, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Public Security issued a notice to strengthen the standardized management of large-scale commercial performance activities with more than 5000 people. The notice points out that the proportion of tickets sold to the public for large-scale performances shall not be less than 85%, and a real name ticket purchase and admission system shall be implemented. The public security organs should increase their efforts to crack down on the sale of performance tickets.

As soon as the notice was released, netizens applauded and thought that the end of scalpers was coming! Some industry insiders also believe that although this move can to some extent combat scalpers, it is not mandatory, and the rectification of scalpers requires joint efforts from multiple parties.

How is "scalper" defined in the law? What laws and regulations have been violated, and what kind of punishment will be imposed?

"At present, there is no clear and direct definition of 'scalpers' in Chinese law, which is commonly known as' ticket dealers'. Anyone who obtains scarce resources such as tickets in an improper way for profit is called a' scalper '." Lawyer Liu Peifeng, a partner at Beijing Zhonglun Wende Law Firm, explained, "As for how much profit is considered a' scalper ', there is no clear unified standard."

Liu Peifeng told reporters that "scalpers" mainly violate Article 52 of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Public Security Administration Punishments: those who forge, alter, or resell train tickets, ship tickets, air tickets, cultural performance tickets, sports competition admission tickets, or other valuable tickets and vouchers shall be detained for not less than ten days but not more than fifteen days and may also be fined not more than one thousand yuan; Those with minor circumstances shall be detained for not less than five days but not more than ten days, and may also be fined not more than 500 yuan.

"If it is a fraudulent ticket, it would constitute the crime of fraud, which would touch the criminal law. However, 'scalpers' are simply for profit and will not take this risk. Generally, they are sold at a higher price, and the main punishment for' scalpers' is administrative." Liu Peifeng explained.

According to industry insiders, there are roughly four sources of tickets in the hands of scalpers for some popular performances: tickets obtained through manual or machine grabbing on the platform, tickets from "organizers" and sponsors, transfers between peers, and tickets purchased by fans or passersby in the market.

Does the behavior of the organizers and ticketing companies providing services for scalpers to resell tickets violate the law? Liu Peifeng told reporters that "Article 52" does not specify specific punishment targets, and as long as such behavior exists, it applies equally to anyone.

Netizens roast about scalper scalping on a social platform.

Why are scalpers repeatedly banned? What are the difficulties in rectifying the chaos of scalpers?

In Liu Peifeng's view, the main reason why scalpers are repeatedly banned is that the cost of illegal activities is low. According to the Law of the People's Republic of China on Public Security Administration Punishments, the maximum penalty for scalpers selling tickets in reverse is 15 days of detention and a fine of 1000 yuan. Compared to the high illegal profits, this cost makes scalpers willing to take risks.

Secondly, scalpers engage in various behaviors of reselling tickets. In addition to directly reselling and gifting the purchased tickets, they can also evade supervision through various means such as proxy buying and grabbing, acquaintance referrals, and offline transactions. Moreover, the number of personnel involved is large, and coupled with convenient transactions, it indirectly increases the difficulty of cracking down.

On the other hand, consumers who purchase "scalper" tickets are generally individuals with full capacity for civil conduct, "one willing to fight and the other willing to suffer.". Few people, after buying scalpers tickets, turn around to report scalpers.

In fact, from a purely technical perspective, "scalpers" are easily locked in. However, in Liu Peifeng's view, the police force of the public security department is also limited. Compared with many cases with significant social harm, it seems unrealistic to specifically allocate police force to crack down on "ticket scalpers".

To rectify scalpers, many people are calling for increased punishment. "The current Public Security Administration Punishment Law was revised 10 years ago, and the fine of 1000 yuan in Article 52 may not match the development of society." Liu Peifeng explained, "However, simply increasing the punishment intensity is not a consensus in the industry, as it may lead to other illegal and criminal behaviors. Cracking down on the chaos of 'scalpers' still requires multiple efforts."

One is to strengthen institutional construction, improve relevant regulations for commercial performances, constrain the responsibilities of organizers, ticketing companies, platforms, and other parties, and strengthen supervision and crackdown efforts by cultural tourism and public security departments. In addition, avoid using technology. For example, the ticketing platform "Strong Real Name" offers one person, one certificate, one ticket, and the hosting unit improves the refund mechanism by setting reasonable refund fee standards; For example, the ticketing of the Hangzhou Asian Games adopts blockchain technology, which can achieve ticket anti-counterfeiting and ticket traceability.

"Fundamentally, it is still necessary to solve the contradiction between supply and demand. Tickets for Jay Chou's concert are themselves scarce resources. Currently, people's demand for cultural life is increasing and their demands are becoming higher, but the supply of the cultural market is not rich enough. I believe that with the development of the cultural market and the increase of high-quality cultural activities, the chaos of 'scalpers' will be alleviated." Liu Peifeng said, "Currently, we also call on consumers to consume rationally, consciously resist' scalpers' behavior, and protect their legitimate rights and interests."