Lawmaker pushes bill to directly penalize macro-program ticket buying on railways

Hwang Hee, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker on the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, said Monday he had introduced an amendment to the Railway Business Act that would create a direct penalty provision for the fraudulent purchase of train tickets using so-called macro programs — software that automates repeated inputs.

Under current law, Hwang said, only the resale of tickets above face value is prohibited, with no provision directly punishing the use of macro programs to buy tickets. Authorities have had to rely on indirect charges such as obstruction of business under the Criminal Act.

The urgency of the legislation has grown as macro abuse has surged. Korea Railroad Corporation blocked roughly 80 times more macro attempts in September — about 36.61 million — than in July, when the figure stood at about 460,000. September's spike coincided with the Chuseok holiday. Authorities also recently arrested a scalper who had swept up more than 4,000 KTX and SRT tickets using such programs.

The amendment would explicitly ban fraudulent purchases made by circumventing security measures, require railways and online ticket-sales intermediaries to put anti-fraud safeguards in place, and establish penalty provisions for violations.

"Using macros to monopolize tickets is a serious illegal act that strips genuine passengers of their right to fair access to rail services and fuels the scalper market," Hwang said. "This amendment must establish a fair ticket-purchasing order and protect the right of real passengers to use the railway."