Federal authorities have filed their first case under a 2016 anti-bot law to crack down on ticket climbers. Three New York-based ticket brokers were ordered to pay $ 3.7 million in fines after allegedly earning $ 1 million through bot-based ticket resale schemes, according to the Federal Trade Commission 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 getting more than 150,000 Ticketmaster tickets to resell at a good price. In all, the three earned an estimated $ 26.1 million in revenue, according to the complaints. The FTC says they allegedly used automated ticketing software, tools to hide their IP addresses and an army of hundreds of fake accounts and credit cards, among other methods to circumvent Ticketmaster purchase limits and protections designed to detect non-human visitors.
FTC regulators added that these are the agency’s first enforcement actions under the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act, an anti-bot law passed in 2016 that banned ticket climbers from using automated means. to buy tickets in bulk and evade purchase limits.
“These ticket brokers used bots and other technical tricks to get thousands of tickets to popular events as soon as they went on sale,” said FTC Office of Consumer Protection Director Andrew Smith , in Friday’s announcement. “This not only deprives loyal fans of the opportunity to see their favorite performers and shows, but it’s against the law.”
The three ticket brokers originally faced more than $ 31 million in civil penalties for violations of the BOTS Act under a proposed agreement with the FTC. But federal regulators agreed to suspend the bulk of these fines because of companies’ inability to pay, as long as they meet certain terms. To advance, the defendants could be stuck with the full amount if it is found that they again breached the BOTS law, confused their financial documents to qualify for the amount of the suspended settlement or did not routinely provide the authorities with the updated data. records and compliance reports. Once a judge approves these news terms, Concert Specials will pay approximately $ 1.56 million, Just in Time Tickets approximately $ 1.64 million and Cartisim Corp a little less than $ 500,000 to the U.S. Treasury.
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So what events did these climbers follow? The FTC’s complaints do not go into much detail except that its alleged targets included various sporting events and musical performances, including Elton John’s concerts. So if you have a price to watch live “Rocket Man,” I guess you now know who to blame.