Three ticket resellers in the New York area have been fined by the FTC under the BOTS Act Engadget reports. It is the first case to fall under Obama-era anti-scalping law passed in 2016. Three Companies – Just in Time Tickets, Inc., Cartisim Corp. and Concert Specials, Inc. – and their clients – Evan Kohanian, Simon Ebrani and Steven Brani – are said to have used ticket robots to buy tickets to run in the resale market. They received a civil sentence totaling $ 3.7 million.
“The three ticket brokers will be subject to more than $ 31 million in civil fines for violating the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act, under a proposed settlement reached with the FTC,” reads the summary of the matter. “Due to their inability to pay, the sentence is partially suspended, forcing them to pay $ 3.7 million.”
“The law’s bipartisan sponsors tried to work hard on the abuse unscrupulous actors inflict on consumers whose typing fingers were no match for algorithms in securing tickets online,” read a statement by FTC Acting Chairman Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, who worked on the BOTS. Acting in her work under Senator Chuck Schumer. “The settlements our employees have negotiated with these alleged BOTS Act violators make it clear that those who defraud fans to get tickets to live events will have serious consequences.”
Read “Why scalping tickets won’t go away” on the field.