Theme park tickets valid for five years: court

By Yi Whan-woo

A local court has ruled in favor of private sellers of theme park tickets who have been embroiled in a dispute with a park operator.

The Seoul Central Court ruled Thursday that the tickets are valid for use for five years from the date they were issued, recognizing the sales right on 5,700 released since 2007 out of 12,000 tickets.

“Such tickets should be classified as commercial rights under Commerce Law, and should be allowed to be sold as long as their rights are not expired,” the court said.

A group of six female sellers, whose names were not disclosed, filed a suit in February 2011 when the operator of the park rejected accepting a number of their tickets saying the valid date for them had expired.

The total number of tickets they had was 12,000 worth 144 million won ($132,000), according to the court.

The sellers claimed they purchased the tickets since 2001 from employees of the company who were under pressure to increase the number of sales. They added that they profited from selling the tickets to theme park visitors.

The firm admitted it sold the tickets through sales networks other than its ticket office. However, it said it cannot accept the passes as they were issued a “long time ago” and considered invalid by its own standards.

All of the 12,000 passes were issued since 2001, and the court brought an appraiser to sort out the 5,700 tickets printed 2007 and after.

“The Commerce Law states the validity period of commercial rights in general is five years, and we order the firm to accept those 5,700 tickets,” the court said.

“This is the first case that the judiciary has recognized a theme park ticket as a valid commercial right, and we expect to see more people claim their rights in similar cases over the validity of movie tickets among others,” a court official said.