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Government Actions

FTC Brings First-Ever Cases Under the BOTS Act

The following describes a government action that has been resolved by either a settlement or a decision by a court or administrative agency. If the matter is being appealed, it will be noted below.

On 1/22/2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced it is taking legal action against three ticket brokers based in New York who allegedly used automated software to illegally buy up tens of thousands of tickets for popular concerts and sporting events, then subsequently made millions of dollars reselling the tickets to fans at higher prices.

The three ticket brokers will be subject to a judgment of more than $31 million in civil penalties for violating the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act, under a proposed settlement reached with the FTC. Due to their inability to pay, the judgment will be partially suspended, requiring them to pay $3.7 million.

This is the first case brought under the BOTS Act, which was enacted in 2016 and gives the FTC authority to take law enforcement action against individuals and companies that use bots or other means to circumvent limits on online ticket purchases.

The FTC alleges that the defendant—Concert Specials, Inc. and Steven Ebrani— and the two other companies purchased more than 150,000 tickets for popular events. In doing so, they violated the BOTS Act in a number of ways, allegedly using automated ticket-buying software to search for and reserve tickets automatically, software to conceal their IP addresses, and hundreds of fictitious Ticketmaster accounts and credit cards to get around posted event ticket limits. The defendants allegedly took in millions of dollars in revenues from the resale of the tickets they purchased using these unlawful means.

Under the terms of the proposed orders, judgments will be entered against the defendants for civil penalties as follows:

$16 million against Concert Specials, Inc. and Steven Ebrani, which is partially suspended due to an inability to pay. They will pay $1,565,527.41.

Under the terms of the proposed orders, if the defendants are found to have misrepresented their financial condition, the full amounts of the penalties would be immediately due.

The proposed orders also prohibit the defendants from further violations of the BOTS Act, including using methods to evade ticket limits, using false identities to purchase tickets, or using any bots to facilitate ticket purchases.