The Trump administration has filed a federal lawsuit against a San Diego company and three of its executives for allegedly using unlawful bot networks to buy tickets in bulk to concerts and sporting events and then sell those tickets at inflated prices.
The civil lawsuit, 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. turned a profit of more than $120 million through an illegal ticket scalping scheme.
The company, based in the Bay Ho neighborhood, did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment. It was not immediately clear if the company or its executives had attorneys who could comment on their behalf.
“REPS’ entire business model is focused on trying to game 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 driving up prices or depriving ordinary fans of access to reasonably priced tickets to their favorite shows or events should be on notice that we are watching and will take action to stop this unlawful conduct.”
The civil complaint alleged 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-selling sites, then using Virtual Private Networks or proxy IP addresses, plus a team of ticket-buyers based in the Philippines, to hide or obscure its bulk online ticket-purchasing activities.
“These tactics allow Defendants to circumvent security measures … or other technological controls or measures on ticket issuers’ websites and apps that would have otherwise blocked” them from buying so many tickets, the complaint alleged.
According to the complaint, between January 2022 and October 2025, the defendants purchased tickets in bulk from Ticketmaster and AXS for at least 83,000 events. The company allegedly spent more than $1.3 billion in order to buy 18.5 million tickets for those events, which included concerts, music festivals, professional and collegiate sporting events, stand-up 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 Ticketmaster’s resale marketplace, at a significant mark-up, making at least $120.8 million in profit,” the complaint alleged.
In one example included in the complaint, the defendants allegedly used 1,300 Ticketmaster accounts to purchase 7,624 tickets to an October 2023 Beyoncé concert at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. “The ticket purchase limit for that concert was between four and eight,” the complaint alleged. “Defendants made approximately $833,323 in profit by reselling those tickets.”
In another example, the company allegedly used at least 700 Ticketmaster accounts to purchase 5,430 tickets for a Pitbull concert at a New York arena. “That venue holds an estimated 17,500 people, and Defendants purchased and resold nearly one-third of that capacity, making approximately $120,109 in profit,” the complaint alleged.
The lawsuit seeks monetary relief, civil penalties and a permanent injunction to stop REPS from allegedly continuing to violate the BOTS Act.