Feds Sue Ticket Broker Firm Over Alleged $120M Scheme For Beyoncé, Pitbull Tickets

The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission have filed a lawsuit against a San Diego-based ticket resale firm, alleging that the company and several of its executives violated federal laws to resell tickets for more than $120 million in profit. The DOJ and FTC allege that REPS & Co violated the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act by opening thousands of accounts across Ticketmaster, AXS and other ticket services and circumventing the ticket platforms’ purchase limits. The ticket brokers had purchased over 18.6 million tickets for about 83,500 events, the agencies alleged in the complaint, including for concerts from the likes of Beyoncé, Post Malone and Pitbull, among others. Regarding Beyoncé specifically, the DOJ and FTC allege that REPS had used about 1,300 accounts to acquire 7,624 tickets to one of the superstar’s Renaissance tour shows at Arrowhead Stadium on October 1, 2023, making about $833,323 in profit from those tickets. In 2024, the company used 700 accounts to acquire 5,430 concert tickets for a Pitbull show at Empower FCU Amphitheater, the agency said, netting over $120,000 in profit. The agencies allege that REPS had hired ticket purchasers in the Philippines to buy tickets for the company and taken steps to conceal their IP addresses and utilize VPNs. The DOJ and FTC said the company’s business model “is predicated on identifying events for which tickets will be in high demand and buy up tickets for those events before ordinary consumers can.” “Defendants’ actions injured consumers who otherwise may have been able to purchase those tickets in the first instance from ticket issuers at lower prices,” the suit said. Representatives for REPS didn’t immediately respond to THR’s request for comment. “REPS’ entire business model is focused on trying to game the ticket-purchasing system in order to obtain as many tickets as possible to resell at inflated prices to consumers,” Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement. “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.” The suit comes amid a period of increased government scrutiny around the live music business. Last year, President Trump, joined by Kid Rock at the Oval Office, had signed an executive order calling for increased enforcement of the BOTS Act, as well as for the FTC to “evaluate and, if appropriate, take enforcement action to prevent unfair, deceptive, and anti-competitive conduct in the secondary ticketing market.” Elsewhere, last year the FTC filed a lawsuit against concert giant Live Nation accusing the company of coordinating with ticket brokers to get them tickets before regular customers can obtain them. The DOJ, meanwhile, had sued Live Nation in 2024 on monopoly allegations. (The DOJ and Live Nation had settled in the latter suit, though a collection of states continued the suit on their own, and Live Nation was found liable back in April.)