Feds Accuse Ticket Broker Of Making $833K Off One Beyoncé Show

Beyoncé’s Kansas City show allegedly netted a ticket broker more than $833,000 in resale profits after it used at least 1,300 accounts to buy seats, according to a new federal lawsuit.

The Justice Department sued REPS & Company and three executives on October 15, accusing them of getting around ticket-buying limits across thousands of events. The San Diego company allegedly bought 7,624 tickets to Beyoncé’s October 1, 2023, concert at Arrowhead Stadium, where the purchase limit ranged from four to eight.

That was the final stop on her “Renaissance World Tour.” The government put the broker’s profit from that one show at approximately $833,323.

DOJ trial attorneys Austin T. Mendes and Meredith L. Reiter laid out the alleged cost to fans in the complaint, which Mendes signed.

“Because Defendants mainly target and harvest tickets most likely to sell out and generate a high demand in the secondary marketplace, consumers that purchase the tickets Defendants resell often pay a significant markup,” the lawyers wrote.

The fight for seats had started months before Beyoncé reached Kansas City.

Ticketmaster’s original tour instructions required fans to register and undergo checks intended to screen out professional resellers. Demand could send fans into a lottery for an access code, and even getting a code did not guarantee a ticket.

Federal lawyers alleged that REPS took a different route. They described thousands of accounts, virtual credit cards and software that hid buyers’ locations. The complaint said most of its ticket-buying employees were based in the Philippines.

The company also allegedly kept an “Error Bible” to help staff overcome purchase blocks.

“The Error Bible instructs Defendants’ employees and agents on how to resolve or workaround Ticketmaster’s ticket limit controls, and they have developed and refined standard operating procedures for troubleshooting and bypassing ticket limits on Ticketmaster’s website,” Mendes and Reiter wrote.

Beyoncé’s concert was one example in a much larger case. The government alleged that REPS spent more than $1.3 billion to buy over 18.5 million tickets for at least 83,500 events in which it bought more than eight tickets.

The filing claimed that resales generated at least $120.8 million in profit.

The suit also named CEO Ryan Pancheri, President Brian Archibald and Chief Operating Officer Nicholas Totagrande. It accused them of violating the Better Online Ticket Sales Act, which bars bypassing online safeguards that enforce ticket limits and certain resales of tickets obtained that way.

REPS described its business on its website as using data to predict demand and prices, with a goal of connecting more fans to live events.

The company did not immediately respond to Billboard’s request for comment.

The government asked the Southern District of California court for a permanent order stopping the alleged conduct, financial relief and civil penalties. It did not specify a total dollar amount it wanted awarded.