The Justice Department has sued San Diego-based ticket broker REPS & Company and three of its executives, accusing them of bypassing online purchase limits to acquire more than 18.5 million tickets and generate at least $120.8 million in resale profits from concerts by stars including Beyoncé, Post Malone, and Pitbull. The lawsuit, filed October 15, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California following a referral from the Federal Trade Commission, alleges violations of the Better Online Ticket Sales Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act.
The civil complaint names REPS chief executive Ryan Pancheri, president Brian Archibald, and chief operating officer Nicholas Totagrande as defendants. Prosecutors allege that the San Diego-based company spent more than $1.3 billion acquiring tickets to over 83,500 events since 2022, reselling them at steep markups through platforms including StubHub, Vivid Seats, SeatGeek, Gametime, and Ticketmaster.
According to the complaint, REPS relied on thousands of accounts created using employees' and third parties' names and addresses, along with company-controlled payment methods and technological tools designed to disguise purchasing activity. The operation allegedly used proxy internet addresses, virtual private networks, and specialized browsers to evade the systems that ticket issuers employ to detect buyers exceeding posted limits, which typically cap purchases at four to eight tickets per buyer.
The scale of the alleged scheme is illustrated by its handling of Beyoncé's 2023 Renaissance tour stop at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. Authorities allege REPS used 1,300 accounts to purchase 7,624 tickets for that single show, generating approximately $833,000 in resale profit. At a Pitbull concert in Syracuse, New York, in 2024, at least 700 accounts allegedly bought 5,430 tickets that were then resold for $120,109 in profit. Beyond concerts, the company allegedly scooped up tickets to music festivals, stand-up comedy shows, professional and collegiate sporting events, rodeos, Broadway shows, and touring theater productions.
Congress enacted the BOTS Act in 2016 to prohibit circumventing the technological safeguards used to enforce posted ticket purchase limits. While reselling tickets is generally lawful, using prohibited methods to bypass those restrictions can violate federal law. Federal officials say the case is one of the most significant enforcement actions ever brought under the statute.
The lawsuit lands amid years of public fury over concert ticket prices, as fans routinely find face-value tickets vanishing within seconds of onsales only to reappear on resale platforms at multiples of their original price. Consumer advocates have long argued that automated purchasing operations lock ordinary buyers out of the market. The defendants have not yet publicly responded to the allegations, and the case is expected to take months or years to resolve.