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Tax authorities take aim at multimillion dollar ticket reselling industry

Published: 06 Nov. 2025, 16:26 Updated: 06 Nov. 2025, 19:19

Ahn Deok-soo, head of the investigation bureau at the National Tax Service, speaks during a press briefing at the government complex in Sejong on Nov. 6, explaining the launch of a tax investigation into ticket resellers. [YONHAP]

Korea’s tax authorities opened a sweeping investigation on Thursday into professional ticket resellers accused of turning K-pop fandom into a multimillion-dollar black market, as regulators move to clamp down on years of unreported profits from inflated concert and sports ticket sales.

The National Tax Service (NTS) said the probe reflects growing concern that profiteers are exploiting fan culture for commercial gain.

In one case, a travel agency bought large volumes of K-pop concert tickets from a secondhand marketplace operator, paying commissions worth around 100,000 won ($70) per ticket, according to the NTS. The travel agency then resold the tickets to tourists at up to 2.5 times their original price. Over the past six years, the two firms allegedly resold at least 40,000 tickets, generating roughly 10 billion won in unreported revenue.

The NTS said that on major ticket resale platforms this year, about 400 users — representing the top 1 percent of sellers — accounted for nearly half of all trades. Each of them handled an average of 67 million won in annual transactions.

Investigators are focusing on 17 of those top sellers suspected of tax evasion, including 14 individuals and three corporations. Among the individuals are a mid-30s employee at a public institution and a private schoolteacher. The unreported value of tickets sold by the 17 parties is estimated at a minimum of about 22 billion won.

Blackpink hold a concert in Los Angeles on July 12 for the girl group's ″Deadline″ world tour. [YG ENTERTAINMENT]

The most common tactic, authorities said, involved buying tickets and reselling them at a markup through secondhand marketplaces — a practice that has surged alongside the growth of these platforms.

One reseller reportedly sold tickets to K-pop concerts and professional sports games at extreme markups. In some cases, concert tickets originally priced at about 160,000 won were resold for as much as 2.4 million won, roughly 15 times the face value. Baseball game tickets costing around 100,000 won were flipped for nearly 2 million won, according to the NTS.

Another scheme under scrutiny involves “proxy ticketing,” where resellers use automated macro tools to buy up large quantities of tickets. Some of these operators established formal companies to appear legitimate, and even received tax deductions meant for startups. The NTS also included individuals who sold macro tools directly to hopeful concertgoers in its probe.

This is the agency’s first coordinated tax investigation into ticket touting. If investigators confirm tax evasion, the NTS plans to refer the cases for prosecution under the Punishment of Tax Offenses Act.

“Given the scale and urgency of the issue’s impact on the public, we will thoroughly examine the resellers’ earnings, cash flow and hidden assets,” said Ahn Deok-soo, head of the investigation bureau at NTS.

He added that the agency will also “scrutinize other practices that undermine fair market relations.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY JANG WON-SEOK [[email protected]]