The Department of Justice (DOJ) has accused a San Diego-based ticket broker of using illegal workarounds to buy up and resell millions of concert tickets for an eye-popping profit of $120 million.
The DOJ’s civil division, acting on a referral from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), sued broker REPS & Co. on Thursday (Oct. 15). The lawsuit, obtained and first reported by Billboard, seeks unspecified financial penalties for violations of the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act.
The BOTS Act is a 2016 federal law that makes it illegal to circumvent a primary ticket issuer’s security measures. While the statute was rarely invoked in its first decade of existence, President Donald Trump made its enforcement a priority via a 2025 executive order. Since then, the FTC has brought legal actions against various ticket brokers who’ve allegedly used large numbers of fake accounts to exceed ticket-buying limits set by companies like Ticketmaster and AXS.
Previous cases lodged by the FTC — against brokers Key Investment Group and Elite Events — alleged that those companies made profits in the range of $3.5 million to $6 million flipping tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of tickets. But Thursday’s lawsuit against REPS & Co. alleges BOTS Act violations at a far larger scale: According to the complaint, REPS has made $120 million in profit by buying and reselling more than 18.5 million tickets since 2022.
According to the DOJ, REPS’ business model revolves around hiring offshore employees in the Philippines to open thousands of Ticketmaster and AXS accounts in others’ names. The company allegedly uses analytics software and data scraping to prioritize the most in-demand tickets that will net the highest resale prices from fans, with targeted concerts including Beyonce’s 2023 Renaissance world tour and shows by Luke Bryan and Post Malone.
In total, REPS is accused of running the scheme for 83,000 different events since 2022. In one notable example, the DOJ says REPS bought up 5,430 tickets for a single Pitbull show at Empower FCU Amphitheater in 2024 — nearly one-third of the venue’s total capacity.
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“Much of Defendants’ business operation revolves around circumventing ticket issuer ticket limits and other controls,” reads the DOJ complaint. “For example, Defendants have created and maintained an ‘Error Bible’ that they use to track Ticketmaster error codes and messages that Defendants encounter when attempting to circumvent Ticketmaster’s security controls or technology measures. The Error Bible instructs Defendants’ employees and agents on how to resolve or workaround Ticketmaster’s ticket limit controls, and they have developed and refined standard operating procedures for troubleshooting and bypassing ticket limits on Ticketmaster’s website.”
The DOJ also alleges that REPS had its offshore ticket buyers use thousands of SIM cards to maintain their multiple accounts, as well as proxy IP addresses and virtual private networks to mask their conduct.
In statements released Thursday, top officials in the DOJ and FTC warned that both government agencies will keep closely monitoring ticket brokers for potential BOTS Act violations.
“Companies that seek to profit by driving up prices or depriving ordinary fans of access to reasonably priced tickets to their favorite shows or events should be on notice that we are watching and will take action to stop this unlawful conduct,” said Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s bureau of consumer protection.
“The Justice Department is committed to holding accountable individuals and businesses that drive up the cost of event tickets by illegally exceeding ticket purchase limits and reselling those unlawfully obtained tickets with exorbitant markups,” said Brett Shumate, head of the DOJ civil division. “Working alongside the FTC, we will continue to enforce the BOTS Act to protect consumers from such conduct.”
REPS did not immediately return a request for comment on the lawsuit.
In addition to targeting ticket brokers for BOTS Act enforcement, the federal government has also put Ticketmaster itself in the crosshairs of the statute. A 2025 FTC lawsuit alleges that the Live Nation subsidiary turns a blind eye to mass resellers in order to boost its own bottom line — claims Ticketmaster strongly denies. That case is still pending.
