Federal authorities brought their first case under an anti-bot law in 2016 to curb the ticket sellers. Three ticket brokers in New York have been ordered to pay fines of $ 3.7 million after allegedly earning millions of dollars through bot-powered ticket sales systems, the Federal Trade Commission said. Announced Friday.
The companies – Cartisim Corp., owned by Simon Ebrani; Just In Time Tickets, owned by Evan Kohanian; and Concert Specials, owned by Steven Ebrani, are accused of collecting more than 150,000 tickets from Ticketmaster to sell at a premium. In total, the three reportedly earned a whopping $ 26.1 million in estimated revenue. According to the FTC, they allegedly used automated ticket-buying software, tools to hide their IP addresses, and an army of hundreds of fake accounts and credit cards, among other things, to circumvent Ticketmaster’s purchase limits and guarantees that track non-human visitors.
FTC regulators added that these are the agency’s first enforcement actions brought under the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act, an anti-bot law passed in 2016, which bans ticket sellers from using automated means used to buy tickets in bulk and evade the purchase of limits.
“These ticket brokers used bots and other technical tricks to pick up thousands of tickets to popular events once they were offered for sale,” FTC Director of the Office of Consumer Protection Andrew Smith said in Friday’s announcement. “It not only deprives loyal fans of the chance to see their favorite artists and shows, it’s against the law.”
The three ticket brokers originally imposed more than $ 31 million in civil fines for violations of the BOTS Act under a proposed settlement with the FTC. But federal regulators have agreed to suspend most of these fines due to the inability of companies to pay, as long as they meet certain conditions. If we move forward, the accused can put the full amount at stake if they are found to be in breach of the BOTS Act again, defrauding their financial documents to qualify for the suspended amount, or the authorities not regularly updating . records and compliance reports. Once a judge approves these news terms, Concert Specials will pay about $ 1.56 million, Just in Time Tickets about $ 1.64 million and Cartisim Corp just under $ 500,000 to the U.S. Treasury.
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So, what events did these scalpers even go to anyway? The FTC’s complaints are not set out in detail, except that their alleged targets include various sporting events and music performances, including concerts by Elton John. So if you’ve seen the price of the “Rocket Man” live, I would now know who to blame.