South Korea has pledged a crackdown on ticket scalping after police uncovered more than 1,800 online resale listings for BTS’s forthcoming concert and arrested members of a network accused of making over £3m in illicit profits. The news comes less than two weeks ahead of the K-pop boy group’s first live performance as a full unit in four years.
The septet, composed of RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook, was on hiatus since 2022 while the members completed their mandatory military service. The outdoor concert is set to take place in Seoul’s historic Gwanghwamun Square on 21 March, a day after the group’s new album, Arirang, is released. The concert will be livestreamed on Netflix. The new album release will be followed by an 82-show world tour covering 34 cities in 23 countries between April 2026 and March 2027.
Tickets for all three BTS shows set to take place in April in Goyang, northwest of the capital Seoul, sold out almost immediately during fan club presales, but resale listings soon appeared with prices nearly 40 times the original. The most expensive tickets were officially priced at 264,000 won (£133). However, resale tickets for seats closest to the main stage were listed at extremely inflated prices of around 10.37m won (£5,240) and other tickets went up to more than 10m won (£5,053).
On Wednesday, South Korea’s ministry of culture said it had taken legal action against people suspected of illegally reselling tickets for the BTS performances after monitoring major online reselling websites. The ministry said it detected 1,868 posts advertising BTS concert tickets for resale between 23 January, when reservations opened, and 9 March. Among the listings, officials identified four suspected cases involving a total of 105 tickets being offered at inflated prices and referred them to the National Police Agency for investigation.
“Ticket scalping disrupts the fair distribution of performances and exploits the genuine passion of fans for popular culture,” culture minister Choi Hwi Young said. “Starting with this investigation request, we will continue taking firm action until illegal ticket sales are eradicated and a fair viewing culture is established.” Authorities have warned that even fans who buy resold tickets may not be able to enter the concerts because of strict anti-scalping measures, including mobile QR codes that cannot be captured by screenshot and mandatory ID checks.
The crackdown comes as police investigate multiple criminal cases linked to the forthcoming concerts. The cyber investigation unit of the Gyeonggi Bukbu police said on Wednesday it had apprehended 16 suspected scalpers who allegedly used automated “macro” programmes to obtain tickets in bulk before reselling them at higher prices. The group made about 7.1bn won (£3.5m) in illegal profits between October 2022 and early 2026 by reselling tickets.
