Federal authorities have sued a California ticket brokerage and three of its executives over an alleged billion-dollar scheme to hoard concert tickets for resale at inflated prices.
The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission filed suit Thursday in San Diego against REPS & Company, a firm that bills itself as a “data and technology centric company in the entertainment industry.” CEO Ryan Pancheri, President Brian Archibald and COO Nicholas Totagrande are named as defendants alongside the company itself.
The complaint accuses the trio of violating the Better Online Ticket Sales Act, the 2016 federal law that bans circumventing purchase limits on ticketing websites. Prosecutors say REPS spent more than $1.3 billion to acquire over 18.5 million tickets since 2022, then flipped them on StubHub, SeatGeek and other resale platforms for at least $120.8 million in profit.
Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division issued a statement Thursday outlining the government’s position.
“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,” Shumate said.
“Working alongside the FTC, we will continue to enforce the BOTS Act to protect consumers from such conduct,” he added.
The scale of the operation was staggering. Prosecutors claim REPS exceeded ticket limits for at least 83,500 events, targeting high-demand concerts by Beyoncé, Post Malone and Luke Bryan among others. The FTC singled out one Beyoncé Renaissance tour stop in Kansas City in 2023, where REPS allegedly used 1,300 accounts to buy 7,624 tickets to a single show, generating $833,000 in profit alone.
Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, characterized the company’s approach as systematic exploitation.
“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,” Mufarrige said.
The mechanics of the alleged scheme relied on a workforce based largely in the Philippines. These employees purchased tickets through accounts created with other people’s names, addresses and phone numbers, according to the complaint. The company deployed IP proxy services and multi-session browsers to mask users’ identities and locations, and maintained agreements with employees and third-party partners allowing REPS to use their personal information to establish multiple accounts with ticket issuers.
“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 complaint stated.
The lawsuit lands amid broader scrutiny of the secondary ticket market and legislative efforts in California to tighten regulations. State lawmakers introduced two bills this year targeting speculative ticket sales and resale price caps. One measure, which would have limited resales to 10% above face value, failed. The other, banning sales of seats sellers do not actually possess, was signed into law.
The California Post contacted REPS for comment following the announcement.