Federal authorities have brought their first case under an anti-bot law in 2016 to deal with ticket scalpers. Three New York ticket brokers were forced to pay $ 3.7 million in fines after making millions of dollars through bot-powered ticket resale systems, the Federal Trade Commission announced on Friday.
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 picking up more than 150,000 tickets from Ticketmaster to resell at a premium. In total, the three earned huge revenues of $ 26.1 million, according to the complaints. The FTC says it used automatic ticketing software, tools to hide its IP addresses and an army of hundreds of fake accounts and credit cards, among other ways to circumvent Ticketmaster’s limits and purchase guarantees. intended for the detection of non-human visitors.
FTC regulators added that these are the first actions the agency has implemented under the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act, an anti-bot law passed in 2016 that prohibits ticket scalpers from using automated means to buy tickets in bulk and to evade the purchase ceilings.
“These ticket brokers used robots and other technical tricks to take out thousands of tickets to popular events as soon as they went on sale,” FTC Consumer Protection Officer Andrew Smith said in a statement Friday. “Not only is it about loyal fans the chance to see their favorite artists and shows, but it’s against the law.”
The three ticket brokers initially faced more than $ 31 million in civil penalties for violations of the BOTS Act in a proposed solution with the FTC. But federal regulators have agreed to suspend most of these fines because of companies’ inability to pay – as long as they meet certain deadlines. Going further, the defendants could be aware of the full amount if it is found that they either violated the BOTS law again, falsified their financial documents to qualify for the suspended amount of the settlement, or failed to provide the authorities with current updated records and compliance reports. Once a judge approves these news terms, Specials Concert will pay about $ 1.56 million, Just in Time Tickets about $ 1.64 million and Cartisim Corp just under $ 500,000 to the US Treasury.
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So what events were these scalpers following, anyway? The FTC’s complaints do not go into too much detail, except that their alleged targets included several sporting events and musical performances, including Elton John concerts. So, if you missed the price of watching “Rocket Man” live, I think now you know who to blame.