crime

Woman arrested for illegally reselling Arashi concert tickets

30 Comments

Police in Sapporo on Wednesday arrested a 25-year-old woman from Kagawa Prefecture on suspicion of illegally reselling tickets to idol group Arashi’s concerts.

According to police, the woman is accused of reselling online five Arashi concert tickets to three women from Sapporo last November to December, Fuji TV reported.

Police said investigations showed that the woman purchased tickets on a website and resold 300 tickets over approximately 18 months, earning approximately 10 million yen in total.

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30 Comments
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That's over 33,000 yen per ticket. I can't believe people would pay that much to see a bunch of boys.

I absolutely abhor scalpers, but part of me thinks that if you're willing to pay that much coin to see boys prance around on stage, then you deserve to be ripped off.

And how did this woman get her hands on these tickets anyway?

11 ( +12 / -1 )

Didn't you guys get the memo? Only government approved clients are allowed to price gouge.

11 ( +11 / -0 )

10 Million. Nice Haul.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

If they opened up their stupid fan club for foreigners as well or allowed ticket purchasing in another way the whole problem would be way less of a problem. I think this is stupid. They start at the complete wrong end of the sales line here

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Yes she should be up for inflicting cruelty on the innocent 300 victims like that.

6 ( +12 / -6 )

"Name any other product which is illegal for you to buy and resell if you think it's under-priced."

Currency?

4 ( +4 / -0 )

This is called SCALPING in the US. Look at stupidbowl tickets and basically any sporting event, very common place but everyone does it, just don't get caught. They call the added cost markup FEES. Folks in Colorado pay the bums to stand in line all night to get cheap seats to give to the scalpers to resell for a markup...goes on every popular game.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

What is wrong in buying and selling ... !!!

3 ( +8 / -5 )

On what charges?

Seriously, reselling of concert tickets is not against any national law of Japan. In Tokyo, reselling concert tickets on street is a violation of prefectural ordinance of Tokyo. But I do not think reselling concert tickets on the internet is against national law or local ordinance in Japan.

In addition, I do not know how the Hokkaido police could arrest a person in Kagawa on probable violation of Hokkaido local ordinance.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Why the police does not arrest the huge number of people who line-up in the morning at every drug store to buy baby diapers and resale them to middle man for 200 yen mark up for each who ship them out of Japan

3 ( +3 / -0 )

She should be complimented for scalping, fleecing or whatever business she was in , not punished for earning a living. My guess is that another face is behind the wall , with her taking the rap.

(just grazing the grass while being street savvy)

2 ( +6 / -4 )

Who is she hurting? Let her go! Let her go!

2 ( +5 / -3 )

theeastisred SEP. 15, 2016 - 01:29PM JST Yes she should be up for inflicting cruelty on the innocent 300 victims like that.

Yes, since these tickets were hard to get, these 300 victims were very happy to attend the concert. What a cruelty to 300 victims who were very happy.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

Educator60SEP. 15, 2016 - 10:16PM JST

According to vernacular news, she was arrested on suspicion of violating the 古物営業法 Secondhand Articles Dealer Act.

Thank you. I would translate 古物営業法 as Law on Dealers of Used Items.

Local Hokkaido Shinbun reported, http://dd.hokkaido-np.co.jp/news/society/society/1-0316323.html

インターネットサイトを使ったコンサートチケットの転売で、古物営業法違反での摘発は道内で初めて。

This was the first case in Hokkaido that a person who had resold concert tickets was charged with violation of Law on Used Item Dealers.

So, the police is trying to expand the scope of the law.

The law prohibits a business of buying and selling used items without a license. The question is whether unused concert tickets are used items.

An explanation I read was that the tickets were originally sold for the purpose of being used and therefore qualify as used or secondhand goods as defined by this law.

That could be the argument by the police. But she bought the tickets for the purpose of reselling rather than using. There are second hand JR ticket vendors, and the law requires the vendors to have a license. The rationale was that a ticket goes from JR through consumer, reseller to consumer and that the existence of consumer between JR and reseller makes the ticket "second hand" and requires special recording procedure for the reseller. But in her case, the tickets went directly from the show business to the reseller. There are a lot of legitimate corporations that procure tickets from show business and resell them to consumers without a used item dealer license.

I am skeptical how the court rules this first ever case in Hokkaido.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

sf:

Yes, since these tickets were hard to get, these 300 victims were very happy to attend the concert. What a cruelty to 300 victims who were very happy.

Glad you agree with me!

I think it's right though that touts (だふや) get into trouble because they are subverting the wishes of the artist/promoters to charge fans a certain amount. If they wanted to claim the excess profit for themselves they would have charged more to start with, but chose not to.

As for the 'secondhand' articles law, well they are 'secondhand' but they are most definitely not 'used', by definition.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

earning approximately 10 million yen in total.

Sounds like she's made money up a storm (Arashi). ;‑)

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Arrested for using her initiative to make some money, pathetic!

0 ( +8 / -8 )

Scalpers suck. But I don't know if it should be criminal. If they want to stop scalping they should limit the number of tickets a person can purchase.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

This must only apply to Arashi because if you get on any auction site, ticket reseller or "discount" ticket shop, the prices are much much higher than face value for many concerts or sporting events.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

What DaDude said.

Just a quick look on Yahoo! Auctions for 嵐チケット reveals lots of people selling for over 30K. Are all these sellers licensed or not in violation of any law?

Also, if I bought a suit with the intention to use it, but then realized I couldn't wear it nor return it to the store, then I'm not allowed to re-sell it since it was a "used item"?

Strange indeed.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

A smart lawyer should bash the hell out of this case.

Buying a product and then selling it as used goods is illegal just about NOWHERE, and any EULA or other contractual nonsense or legalese that lawyers try to use to avoid this ancient law are generally null and void any time the issue is brought to trial.

I cannot even begin to fathom why this woman was arrested on CRIMINAL charges for an issue which should only ever have seen the light of day in a civil court.

I hope the woman saved enough money to hire a lawyer smart enough to bash the idiot police who decided to prosecute her for doing something that is completely legal.

Used items are fair game unless they are known to be stolen goods.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I agree with this completely.

It should be a crime to sell Arashi tickets...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

So basically Japan is not a free market society and actually is a Totalitarian regime that has thought police and a dictatorship mentality not a Democracy and free market.

Well, it's somewhere in the middle.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I can´t really see how ticket scalping is illegal. She bought a product and sold it.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Certainly looks like the police are trying to expand the meaning of the act to cover this situation. Very slippery slope when this is done to criminalise something that ordinarily is considered to be just trade, where does it stop? Many of the instances mentioned above could be covered if the authorities wish to if this is allowed to happen. If she is not paying taxes then she should be prosecuted under the appropriate law (don't know Japanese tax statutes, but all governments make sure they have the means to ensure they can screw money out of you) not some spurious expansion of a law intended for other purposes. Very dangerous precedent.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

In a free market ticket re-sellers is a business and nothing wrong. Its supply and demand that drives prices. So basically Japan is not a free market society and actually is a Totalitarian regime that has thought police and a dictatorship mentality not a Democracy and free market. Its all about buyer beware and if you are willing to pay what crime is committed as a person is just making a living and using the free market approach to making a living and having a life not being dictated to!

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

The demand is out there, which is why people are willing to pay more for the limited supply of tickets. Why doesn't Arashi just increase supply by putting on more shows rather than trying to enforce an artificially low price?

Criminal laws against scalping are just a way for the entertainment industry to enforce its business model at taxpayers' expense. Name any other product which is illegal for you to buy and resell if you think it's underpriced.

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

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