The Trump administration has filed a federal lawsuit against a San Diego company and three of its executives for allegedly using illegal botnets to buy tickets to concerts and sporting events in bulk and then reselling those tickets at inflated prices.
The civil suit, filed Thursday in San Diego federal court by the U.S. Department of Justice based on a referral from the Federal Trade Commission, alleged that REPS & Company Inc. made a profit of more than $120 million through an illegal ticket scalping scheme.
The company, based in the Bay Ho district, did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment. It was not immediately clear whether the company or its executives had lawyers who could comment on their behalf.
“REPS’s entire business model involves attempting to circumvent 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 raising prices or depriving ordinary fans of access to reasonably priced tickets to their favorite shows or events should be informed that we are watching and will take action to stop this illegal conduct.”
The civil complaint alleged that the company violated the Better Online Ticket Sales Act, known as the BOTS Act, by creating thousands of user accounts on Ticketmaster, AXS and other ticket sales sites, then using virtual private networks or proxy IP addresses, as well as a team of ticket buyers based in the Philippines, to hide or obscure its online bulk ticket purchasing activities.
“These tactics allow defendants to circumvent security measures…or other technological controls or measures on ticket issuers’ websites and applications that would have otherwise prevented them” from purchasing as many tickets, the complaint alleges.
According to the complaint, between January 2022 and October 2025, defendants purchased tickets in bulk from Ticketmaster and AXS for at least 83,000 events. The company reportedly spent more than $1.3 billion to purchase 18.5 million tickets for these events, which included concerts, music festivals, professional and college sporting events, comedy shows, Broadway shows and touring theater productions.
“Defendants then resold these tickets on secondary marketplaces, such as StubHub, Vivid Seats, SeatGeek, Gametime, Ticket Network, and the Ticketmaster resale marketplace, at a significant markup, realizing at least $120.8 million in profit,” the complaint alleges.
In one example included in the complaint, the defendants allegedly used 1,300 Ticketmaster accounts to purchase 7,624 tickets for an October 2023 Beyoncé concert at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. “The ticket purchase limit for this concert was between four and eight,” the complaint claims. “The defendants made a profit of approximately $833,323 by reselling these tickets.”
In another example, the company allegedly used at least 700 Ticketmaster accounts to purchase 5,430 tickets to a Pitbull concert at a New York arena. “This venue seats approximately 17,500 people, and Defendants purchased and resold nearly one-third of that capacity, realizing a profit of approximately $120,109,” the complaint alleges.
The lawsuit seeks monetary relief, civil penalties, and a permanent injunction to prevent REPS from continuing to violate the BOTS Act.
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