By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter
Musical producers and an online ticket reservation site have been in a legal battle for six months over the rights to cancellation charges.
The Korea Musical Theatre Association (KMTA) filed a complaint against Interpark, the largest ticket reservation Web site in Korea, in July 2009 to return "excessive" profits.
KMTA represents leading musical production companies such as OD Musical Company, PMC Production, Seol & Company and CJ Entertainment.
The association claims that the ticket seller should return around 10 percent of the penalties to customers when they cancel their reservations before the performances.
Currently, Interpark receives a 5-percent commission for sales and cancellation charges for any cancelled reservations.
The agencies insist that Interpark should be paid for consignment sales, but it unfairly took cancelation penalties as well.
Another online ticket reservation service, Ticketlink, agreed to pass on the cancelation fee to the agencies before the case went to court.
"The cancellation fee compensates for the lost opportunities as the cancelled tickets cannot be sold to other possible customers because of time constraints," said Lee Tae-heon, the lawyer for the KMTA.
"Thus it should belong to the musical producers, not the ticket sales agencies. We are sure of winning the lawsuit," the KMTA lawyer said.
Interpark declined to comment on the issue.
The first hearing in the case will be held on March 25.