Three New York area ticket resellers were fined by the FTC under the BOTS Act, as Engadget reports. It is the first case to be submitted to the Obama era anti-scalping legislation passed 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 – allegedly used ticket bots to buy tickets to sell in the resale market. They received a civil penalty sentence totaling $ 3.7 million.
“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) law, according to a proposed settlement signed with the FTC,” says the summary of the case. “Due to the inability to pay, the sentence will be partially suspended, forcing them to pay $ 3.7 million.”
“The bipartisan sponsors of the law sought to crack down on the abuses that unscrupulous actors inflict on consumers whose digitizing fingers were no match for algorithms in an attempt to secure tickets online,” says a statement by FTC acting chairwoman Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, who worked at BOTS He worked during his time working with Senator Chuck Schumer. “The agreements that our team negotiated with these alleged BOTS violators make it clear that serious consequences will fall on those who deceive fans to get tickets to live events.
Read “Why Ticket Stealing Doesn’t Go Away” in the field.