18.5 million tickets via bots? U.S. Justice Department sues reseller
The Justice Department accuses REPS & Co of circumventing purchase limits at at least 83,000 events, including concerts by Beyoncé and Pitbull. Its profit allegedly exceeded $120 million.
Symbolic image · Photo: Andrew King / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped and resized)
The U.S. Justice Department has sued San Diego-based company REPS & Co. The firm allegedly used bots and other methods to circumvent ticket limits at at least 83,000 events, Rolling Stone reported on Oct. 16, 2026. According to the 22-page complaint, the company spent more than $1.3 billion on a total of 18.5 million tickets – for concerts, Broadway shows and college sports. REPS did not immediately comment; the presumption of innocence applies.
The tickets were then allegedly resold at a markup through platforms such as StubHub, Vivid Seats, SeatGeek, Gametime and Ticketmaster’s resale portal; according to the complaint, the profit was at least $120.8 million. As an example, prosecutors cite a concert on Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” tour on Oct. 1, 2023, at Arrowhead Stadium: At least 1,300 accounts allegedly bought 7,624 tickets there, even though the limit was four to eight tickets.
At a Pitbull concert in Syracuse on Sept. 7, 2024, at least 700 accounts allegedly bought 5,430 tickets – almost a third of capacity. The lawsuit is based on the BOTS Act (Better Online Ticket Sales Act), which prohibits the technical circumvention of ticket limits. The department is determined “to hold individuals and companies accountable,” U.S. Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate was quoted as saying; it will continue to enforce the BOTS Act in close cooperation with the FTC.