Three New York area ticket resellers have been fined by the FTC under the BOTS Act, as Engadget reports. It is the first case brought under anti-scalping legislation from the Obama era, adopted in 2016. Three companies – Just in Time Tickets, Inc., Cartisim Corp. and Concert Specials, Inc. – and their directors – Evan Kohanian, Simon Ebrani and Steven Brani – are alleged to have used ticket robots to buy tickets to throw them on the resale market. They were sentenced to a total of $ 3.7 million in civil punishment.
“The three ticket brokers will be sentenced to more than $ 31 million in civil penalties for violating the Better Ticketing Act (BOTS), based on a solution proposed to the FTC,” the case summary reads. “Due to their inability to pay, the decision will be partially suspended, requiring them to pay $ 3.7 million.”
“The bipartisan sponsors of the Act have tried to combat the abuses that unscrupulous actors are doing to consumers whose fingertips were not suitable for algorithms in trying to secure tickets online,” said a statement from FTC Home President Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, who worked at BOTS Acts during her time in Senate Chuck Schumer. “The agreements our employees have negotiated with these alleged BOTS Act offenders clearly show that those who cheat fans in a fair bid to secure tickets to live events will have serious consequences.”
Read “Why Ticket Scaling Won’t Go Away” on Pitch.