Feds Sue Ticket Broker Accused of Using Thousands of Accounts to Buy 18.5 Million Tickets, Including 7,624 to One Beyoncé Concert

The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission sued a San Diego ticket broker on Thursday, alleging it used thousands of accounts, overseas buyers, masked IP addresses and racks of SIM cards to get around ticket limits and buy more than 18.5 million tickets to concerts, games and shows, then resold them at a markup for at least $120.8 million in profit.

The complaint, filed Oct. 15 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California (No. 3:26-cv-05895), names REPS & Company Inc. and three executives: CEO Ryan Pancheri, President Brian Archibald and Chief Operating Officer Nicholas Totagrande. It accuses them of violating the Better Online Ticket Sales Act, or BOTS Act, and the FTC Act. The Justice Department filed it on a referral from the FTC.

THE NUMBERS

According to the complaint, between January 2022 and October 2025 the defendants bought more than eight tickets from Ticketmaster and AXS for at least 83,000 separate events, “spending over $1.3 billion and amassing over 18.5 million tickets.” Ticket sellers often cap purchases at four to eight tickets per buyer, the complaint says, “sometimes at the request of the performing artist.”

It lists events including concerts by Beyoncé, Luke Bryan and Post Malone, along with music festivals, comedy shows, pro and college sports, rodeos and Broadway shows. The tickets were resold, it says, on StubHub, Vivid Seats, SeatGeek, Gametime, Ticket Network and Ticketmaster’s own resale marketplace.

The complaint gives two examples. For one Beyoncé Renaissance tour concert at Arrowhead Stadium on Oct. 1, 2023, it says the defendants “used at least 1,300 accounts to purchase 7,624 tickets through Ticketmaster,” against a limit of four to eight, and made about $833,323 reselling them. For a Pitbull concert at the Empower FCU Amphitheater on Sept. 7, 2024, it says they used at least 700 accounts to buy 5,430 tickets, nearly a third of the venue’s estimated 17,500 capacity, for about $120,109 in profit.

The government’s complaint says REPS bought 7,624 tickets to one Beyoncé show at Arrowhead Stadium, where the limit was four to eight per buyer. Background: Arrowhead Stadium, photo by Ichabod, CC BY-SA 3.0.

HOW THE TICKET BROKER’S SCHEME ALLEGEDLY WORKED

The government says REPS employs a team of ticket buyers, “most of whom are based in the Philippines,” using accounts it controls. To build those accounts, the complaint says, the company signs “power of attorney” agreements with employees and partners to use their names and addresses, then attaches its own emails, phone numbers and virtual credit cards. It says REPS has made as many as 40 accounts in one person’s name and averages 19 per person, and has used an outside vendor to automate the creation of hundreds more.

When Ticketmaster flagged a purchase limit, the complaint says, the company opened new accounts or tweaked addresses. It quotes an internal instruction: “In order to combat the Limit Error problem, we make modifications to the base address and use the new modified address to create a new [Ticketmaster account].” It also says the company used “thousands of SIM cards” in SIM banks to collect verification codes, along with proxy IP addresses, VPNs and multi-session browsers to hide who and where its buyers were.

‘DESPITE KNOWING’

The government argues the company knew the rules. The complaint says REPS listed the BOTS Act as a law that applied to it on a 2022 audit questionnaire signed by Archibald, and that it learned of FTC cases against another broker, Key Investment Group, and against Live Nation and Ticketmaster in 2025. “Despite knowing of the Better Online Ticket Sales Act and its enforcement,” it says, the defendants kept operating the same way.

“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 Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Civil Division. “Working alongside the FTC, we will continue to enforce the BOTS Act to protect consumers from such conduct.”

The government asks the court for a permanent injunction, monetary relief and civil penalties for each violation. As the Justice Department notes, the claims are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.

Sources: Complaint, United States v. REPS & Company, Inc., et al., No. 3:26-cv-05895 (S.D. Cal., filed Oct. 15, 2026), posted by the U.S. Department of Justice: https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1466336/dl; Justice Department press release “Justice Department Files Complaint Against California Ticket Broker for Using Unlawful Tactics to Purchase Millions of Tickets to Popular Live Events” (Oct. 15, 2026): https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-files-complaint-against-california-ticket-broker-using-unlawful-tactics; FTC press release (Oct. 15, 2026): https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/10/ftc-sues-ticket-broker-over-unlawful-tactics-used-buy-millions-tickets-popular-live-events. Cover: Arrowhead Stadium, U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Thomas Barley, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. In-post background: aerial view of Arrowhead Stadium, photo by Ichabod, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.