Chasing stars doesn’t mean returning to politics! The founder of Tuoyuan supports Lai Ruilong and has his part in combating scalpers and amending the law.

In the star-chasing world, people often say that "star-chasing is about star-chasing, and politics is about politics." It is called "star-chasing is about politics." But in fact, everything from how to buy concert tickets is closely related to politics. A few days ago, Tuoyuan founder Qiu Guangzong posted on Facebook about a past incident. At that time, Democratic Progressive Party Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Lai Ruilong and legislator Wu Siyao jumped in to urge the Ministry of Culture to formally revise the "artistic performance ticket finalization contract" and added mechanisms such as "ticket refunds within 3 days after purchase." In the article passed on the third reading in May 2023, "scalper behavior" was finally clearly defined in law for the first time.

Qiu Guangzong said, "I recall that not long after Ruilong was elected as a legislator in 2016, one day he took the initiative to chat with me and asked me: 'Now that I am in the Legislative Yuan, is there anything I can do to help the concert industry?' Many politicians may ask this question. It was just polite, but I thought Ruilon really wanted to hear the truth, so I told him about a systemic issue that outsiders didn’t pay attention to and fans didn’t know about, but it caused great pain to the entire industry—the refund mechanism in the “Art Performance Ticket Standardization Contract.”

Qiu Guangzong pointed out that under the old system, in order to protect consumers, regulations stipulated that as long as refunds were processed "10 days before the performance", the handling fee could only be charged a maximum of 10%. This originally well-intentioned regulation has, in practice, become a super-protective umbrella for scalpers (almost) doing business without capital. Because this means that scalpers can use a lot of manpower and programs unscrupulously to try to sweep up all the tickets after they go on sale, making any popular shows appear to be "sold out" (most of them were sold out in a flash back then), thereby creating panic among fans and driving up prices.

Qiu Guangzong said that after Lai Ruilong listened to his "Luo Luo Chang" explanation, he did not back down because the matter was "thankless", but asked Commissioner Wu Siyao to jump in and help. In order to understand the legislative context of that year, Lai Ruilong and Wu Siyao, under various challenges, helped him dig out the public hearing records and related meeting materials when the contract was formulated, sorted out the boring legal logic from the beginning, and then took them to public hearings and communicate with the administrative departments again and again. After more than a year of discounts, the Ministry of Culture finally made it possible in 2018 to formally revise the "Artistic Performance Tickets Standardization Contract" and added mechanisms such as "ticket refunds within 3 days of purchase." After the amendment to the law, scalpers were no longer able to hoard tickets until the last moment before returning them, and the rate of abnormal ticket refunds in the market dropped sharply.

Qiu Guangzong mentioned that after the epidemic, the concert market will usher in a retaliatory recovery. At the beginning of 2023, because BLACKPINK came to Taiwan to perform, the news that scalpers hyped the tickets to more than 100,000 yuan a ticket caused dissatisfaction from all walks of life. In the past, the only way to catch scalpers was through the "Social Order Maintenance Law". Not only was the definition vague, the penalties were light, and it did not hurt the scalpers' interest structure at all. Not to mention that when people from all walks of life want to discuss how to deal with scalpers, there is still a legal prerequisite that is not defined: "What is a scalper?"

Qiu Guangzong said that this time, because Lai Ruilong had a deep understanding of the concert and ticketing ecology, he immediately grasped the core issues without them having to explain them from scratch. With the active efforts of Lai Ruilong and Wu Siyao, coupled with the full support of the Minister of Culture, and the input of many committee members and friends who care about this industry, everyone worked together to promote the amendment of the "Cultural and Creative Industries Development Law". In the article passed on the third reading in May 2023, "scalper behavior" was finally clearly defined in law for the first time, and for the first time, the unfair ticket purchase method of trying to scan tickets with various technologies was added, which is the legal basis for various robot ticket purchases (impeding the use of computers is almost impossible to establish).

Qiu Guangzong lamented, "In this age where we are constantly pursuing quick results and enjoying watching the excitement, there are really not many people who are willing to spend several years to understand a complex industry and accompany the industry to promote reforms in laws and meeting minutes without applause. Since 2008 After dealing with the crisis of World Games Ticketing in the past ten years, what I admire most about Ruilong is his seriousness in taking the pain of the industry as his own business and getting things done step by step, and this is only a small part of what he has accomplished."

Lai Ruilong also replied under the relevant repost, "Every time I see news about flash sales of concerts, I think of Guangzong. Because I know that behind the circles on the screen, there is a group of people who are working hard to support the system. The first time we cooperated was on ticketing before the 2009 World Games. There were many situations at that time. We worked together every day to figure out a way, pass each test, and finally completed it successfully. Since then, Guangzong has become my most trusted friend in this industry."

Lai Ruilong said, "In 2016, I asked Qiu Guangzong, how can the Legislative Yuan help? Qiu Guangzong did not politely talk about the most troublesome system problems in the industry. There was no applause for these matters. It required going through old materials, holding public hearings, and repeatedly communicating with the administrative departments. Thank you to Commissioner Wu Siyao and the Ministry of Culture for working side by side to close the refund loophole and give scalpers a legal definition for the first time."

Lai Ruilon emphasized that these are not perfect yet, but every step is important. Kaohsiung is now the concert capital. Every weekend, the whole city is filled with singing. In the future, I will make it fairer to grab tickets and more secure to watch performances, let industry operators feel safe to hold events in Kaohsiung, and give every fan the opportunity to attend the concert they are looking forward to. "Thank you Guangzong, see you in Kaohsiung for the next one!"