The U.S. Department of Justice has filed suit against REPS & Co, a San Diego ticket broker it accuses of running one of the largest ticket-limit evasion operations the government has yet targeted. The civil complaint, brought on Thursday, October 15, after a referral from the Federal Trade Commission, alleges violations of the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act and asks for financial penalties.
By the government’s count, REPS has bought roughly 18.5 million tickets to more than 83,000 events since 2022, spending over $1.3 billion and then flipping them on StubHub, Vivid Seats, SeatGeek, Gametime and Ticketmaster’s own resale marketplace for profits of at least $120 million. Concerts by Beyoncé, Post Malone, Pitbull and Luke Bryan are among the shows named.
One stadium show, 7,624 tickets
The complaint’s starkest example is Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour stop at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City on October 1, 2023, where the purchase limit was four to eight tickets per buyer. Prosecutors say REPS used at least 1,300 accounts to acquire 7,624 seats and pocketed about $833,000 on resale. For a 2024 Pitbull date at Empower FCU Amphitheater near Syracuse, it allegedly took 5,430 tickets, close to a third of the venue.
The DOJ describes offshore buyers in the Philippines working thousands of accounts with SIM cards, proxy IP addresses and VPNs, plus an internal “Error Bible” for getting past Ticketmaster’s security checks. REPS did not respond to press requests for comment.
Earlier FTC actions against brokers such as Key Investment Group and Elite Events involved alleged profits of $3.5 million to $6 million, putting this case on a different scale. Officials signaled more could follow, with the FTC’s Christopher Mufarrige warning that brokers who squeeze out ordinary fans “should be on notice that we are watching.”
Image: Beyoncé performs during the Renaissance World Tour at PGE Narodowy, Warsaw, on June 27, 2023. Photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Parkwood, via Billboard.
Sources: Billboard, Rolling Stone, Stereogum.