The lawsuit, filed October 15, 2026, in San Diego federal court, targets REPS & Company Inc., a privately held entertainment technology business headquartered in the Bay Ho neighborhood, along with three of its top executives. Federal regulators allege the company spent more than $1.3 billion purchasing tickets to at least 83,500 events between January 2022 and October 2025, routinely circumventing purchasing restrictions intended to prevent professional resellers from monopolizing ticket inventories before ordinary consumers have an opportunity to buy seats at their original prices.
The 22-page complaint, filed by the U.S. Department of Justice following a referral from the Federal Trade Commission, names REPS CEO Ryan Pancheri, president Brian Archibald, and chief operating officer Nicholas Totagrande as individual defendants. The government alleges the company violated the Better Online Ticket Sales Act, commonly known as the BOTS Act, a federal law enacted in 2016 that prohibits circumventing technological safeguards designed to enforce posted ticket-purchasing limits.
Among the performers whose concerts were allegedly targeted are Beyoncé, Post Malone, Luke Bryan, and Pitbull. At a single Beyoncé concert in Kansas City, Missouri, the company allegedly used at least 1,300 Ticketmaster accounts to purchase 7,624 tickets, later reselling them for approximately $833,323 in profit. At a Pitbull concert in Syracuse, New York, REPS allegedly acquired nearly one-third of the venue's entire capacity, making more than $120,000 from the resale of those tickets.
For anyone who has waited in an online queue for a popular concert, only to watch available seats disappear and reappear minutes later on resale platforms at substantially higher prices, the allegations offer an extraordinary look at the machinery behind professional ticket brokering. Federal investigators describe an operation that went far beyond ordinary ticket speculation, with employees allegedly trained to evade purchasing restrictions, maintain numerous accounts under different identities, and troubleshoot security systems specifically designed to stop bulk buying.
REPS & Company, founded in 2017 by Ryan and Erik Pancheri, describes itself as a data- and technology-driven business operating within the entertainment industry. The company promotes its ability to analyze ticket demand, forecast prices, and improve efficiency in the secondary ticket marketplace. Its website also highlights recognition by Forbes as one of America's Best Startup Employers, while its publicly available corporate materials emphasize technology, innovation, and connecting consumers with live experiences.
Ryan Pancheri, the company's CEO, identifies himself on LinkedIn as a University of San Diego alumnus and lists more than 11 years of executive leadership experience, including positions with REPS & Company and REPs Investments. His professional profile identifies San Diego as his home base, reinforcing the company's local roots despite the nationwide scope of its ticket-purchasing activities.
According to the federal complaint, Pancheri was not merely a distant executive overseeing a large operation. Investigators allege he supervised the company's technology development, data analytics, purchasing, inventory processing, pricing, fulfillment, accounting, and human resources. The complaint also alleges that Pancheri directly participated in purchasing tickets and managed the processes used to identify profitable events, acquire inventory, and resell tickets.
Archibald, who previously served as REPS' chief operating officer before becoming president, allegedly oversaw the company's ticket brokerage operations, including its purchasing strategy, data analysis, pricing, and inventory management. Totagrande, the current COO, allegedly supervised ticket operations, including purchasing, resale listings, and distribution.
The government's central allegation is that REPS used its technological resources not simply to predict ticket demand but to systematically circumvent restrictions imposed by primary ticket sellers such as Ticketmaster and AXS.
According to the complaint, ticket issuers commonly restrict purchases to between four and eight tickets per customer, sometimes at the request of performing artists seeking to discourage large-scale resale activity. Ticketmaster and AXS employ various controls intended to enforce those limits, including restrictions associated with account identities, payment cards, billing addresses, telephone numbers, and internet protocol addresses.
REPS allegedly developed a business model designed to overcome those restrictions. Federal investigators say the company maintained thousands of ticket-purchasing accounts associated with employees and third-party partners, often using personal identifying information belonging to individuals other than the people actually conducting the transactions. Some identities were allegedly associated with dozens of accounts, allowing purchases that would otherwise have exceeded the limits imposed on a single customer.
The complaint alleges that REPS maintained agreements authorizing the company to use employees' and partners' names and addresses to establish ticketing accounts. Investigators say the company averaged approximately 19 accounts per participating individual, with some people associated with as many as 40 accounts.
To further conceal its activities, REPS allegedly used proxy internet addresses, virtual private networks, and multi-session browsers that allowed employees to appear as unrelated purchasers accessing ticketing platforms from different locations.
The company also allegedly relied on thousands of virtual credit card numbers, enabling employees to use different payment credentials when purchasing tickets through multiple accounts. When ticketing websites identified suspicious transactions or blocked purchases, investigators say REPS employees would modify account details or switch payment methods to continue acquiring inventory.
The complaint describes an extensive purchasing workforce composed primarily of employees based in the Philippines. Those employees allegedly operated multiple accounts, monitored ticket releases, and followed company procedures for obtaining large quantities of tickets to events identified as potentially profitable.
The company also allegedly used thousands of SIM cards and specialized devices to receive verification codes sent by ticketing platforms. Such systems allowed employees to access numerous telephone numbers without maintaining a separate physical phone for each ticketing account.
One particularly revealing allegation involves an internal company reference document described as an "Error Bible," which investigators say employees used to diagnose Ticketmaster error messages and identify methods for overcoming restrictions that interfered with ticket purchases.
Federal regulators allege the company systematically studied which accounts were most likely to be flagged by ticketing websites, tested different purchasing configurations, and modified its methods when security controls prevented transactions.
According to the complaint, internal communications show REPS employees and executives discussing strategies for preventing accounts from being blocked and maintaining purchasing efficiency. In one instance, investigators allege an employee reported successfully completing transactions after making slight modifications to an account holder's address.
The government contends these were not occasional technical workarounds but elements of an organized purchasing operation intended to evade restrictions and acquire far more tickets than individual customers were permitted to buy.
The scale of the alleged operation is staggering. Federal investigators say REPS completed more than 3.1 million ticket-purchasing transactions through Ticketmaster and AXS since 2022, acquiring more than 18.6 million tickets overall. For at least 83,500 events, the company allegedly purchased more than eight tickets, spending more than $1.3 billion to accumulate over 18.5 million tickets in that category alone.
Those tickets were subsequently resold through major secondary marketplaces, including StubHub, Vivid Seats, SeatGeek, Gametime, Ticket Network, and Ticketmaster's own resale platform. The government calculates that REPS generated at least $120.8 million in profit from those transactions.
The events allegedly targeted extended far beyond the biggest names in popular music. The complaint identifies concerts, music festivals, stand-up comedy performances, professional and collegiate sporting events, rodeo competitions, Broadway productions, and touring theatrical performances.
The company allegedly used analytics software and data scraping to track artists' popularity, tour announcements, historical resale prices, and other indicators of demand. Employees then monitored secondary-market trends to determine which events were likely to sell out and which tickets could command the highest resale premiums.
The Beyoncé example illustrates the potential profitability of that strategy. For the October 1, 2023, Renaissance World Tour performance at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, REPS allegedly used at least 1,300 Ticketmaster accounts to acquire 7,624 tickets despite posted purchasing limits of between four and eight tickets per customer. The government alleges those tickets generated approximately $833,323 in resale profit, averaging roughly $109 per ticket.
A second example involves Pitbull's September 7, 2024, performance at Empower Federal Credit Union Amphitheater near Syracuse. Investigators say REPS used at least 700 Ticketmaster accounts to purchase 5,430 tickets at a venue with an estimated capacity of 17,500 people. That represented approximately 31% of the venue's capacity. The company allegedly earned $120,109 in profit by reselling those tickets, averaging approximately $22 per ticket.
Those figures underscore the financial incentives associated with obtaining large quantities of desirable tickets before the general public can purchase them. Even comparatively modest profits per ticket can become substantial when multiplied across thousands of seats and tens of thousands of events.
The complaint does not identify particular San Diego concerts at which REPS allegedly violated purchasing limits, but the company's headquarters and leadership are firmly rooted in the region. Its principal business address is listed as 4141 Jutland Drive, Suite 332, in San Diego's Bay Ho neighborhood, just east of Interstate 5.
The company's LinkedIn presence identifies hundreds of employees and a substantial network of executives working across technology, finance, and ticketing operations. Its corporate messaging portrays the business as an innovative participant in the live entertainment economy, rather than the kind of traditional ticket scalper historically associated with purchasing seats outside stadiums and concert venues.
The federal complaint paints a different picture, alleging a highly organized ticket-resale operation built around acquiring inventory through methods specifically designed to defeat the rules established by primary sellers.
Federal investigators also contend that REPS' executives were aware of the legal restrictions governing their industry.
The BOTS Act became federal law in December 2016, before REPS was founded. According to the complaint, the company's leadership monitored legislative and enforcement developments concerning ticket resale, understood the existence of purchasing restrictions, and represented to certain business partners that it complied with applicable laws.
Investigators cite a 2022 financial audit questionnaire signed by Archibald that reportedly identified the BOTS Act among the laws applicable to REPS. The complaint also alleges the company required certain business partners to agree to comply with the statute. Despite that awareness, federal prosecutors contend the company continued using methods designed to circumvent ticketing controls.
The lawsuit comes amid growing national scrutiny of the live entertainment industry, where consumers have long complained about expensive ticket prices, substantial service fees, limited availability, and the prevalence of professional resellers.
The controversy extends beyond brokers themselves. Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, have faced separate regulatory and antitrust scrutiny over their influence on ticketing and concert promotion. Secondary marketplaces have also become increasingly important participants in an industry where tickets can change hands repeatedly before reaching the person who ultimately attends an event.
Reselling tickets is not inherently illegal, and professional ticket brokers can operate lawfully. The conduct challenged in the REPS lawsuit concerns the alleged circumvention of technological controls used to enforce posted purchasing limits and the subsequent resale of tickets obtained through those methods.
That distinction matters because the same ticketing platforms that impose purchasing restrictions may also operate or facilitate secondary resale marketplaces. The federal lawsuit does not accuse StubHub, SeatGeek, Vivid Seats, or the other resale platforms identified in the complaint of participating in REPS' alleged violations.
Instead, the government argues that REPS' methods deprived consumers of opportunities to purchase tickets through original sales channels at lower prices, forcing some buyers into secondary markets where professional resellers could charge substantial premiums.
The FTC has increasingly targeted alleged violations of the BOTS Act as part of its consumer protection efforts. The agency's enforcement authority includes seeking court orders to stop prohibited conduct and pursuing financial penalties where authorized by law.
In announcing the REPS lawsuit, Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said the agency intended to hold companies accountable when they circumvent ticketing restrictions and undermine consumers' access to reasonably priced entertainment.
Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department's Civil Division similarly emphasized the federal government's commitment to pursuing businesses that allegedly obtain tickets through unlawful methods and resell them at substantial markups.
The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction prohibiting REPS and its executives from continuing practices that violate federal law, along with monetary relief, civil penalties, and other remedies authorized by the FTC Act and BOTS Act.
The complaint does not establish that the government has already recovered the alleged $120.8 million in profits, nor does it identify a final amount of penalties that a court would impose.
The case is a civil enforcement action, not a criminal indictment. None of the defendants has been convicted of a crime or found liable for the alleged conduct, and the accusations remain subject to litigation.
The company's response to the allegations was not available in the federal materials reviewed. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that REPS did not immediately respond to its request for comment following the lawsuit's filing.
The action is captioned United States of America v. REPS & Company Inc., Ryan Pancheri, Brian Archibald and Nicholas Totagrande, Case No. 3:26-cv-05895, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.
For concertgoers, the case offers a rare glimpse into the sophisticated infrastructure that can operate behind the scenes of the modern ticketing marketplace, where access to desirable seats is increasingly influenced by data analytics, automated purchasing systems, and professional resale operations.
For San Diego, it places a locally headquartered technology company and three of its executives at the center of a major federal consumer protection case involving billions of dollars in ticket purchases and some of the biggest names in entertainment.
Whether the government can prove its allegations remains to be determined. But the complaint raises a fundamental question about the live entertainment industry: when a single company can allegedly acquire thousands of seats to one concert through hundreds or thousands of separate accounts, how meaningful are the purchasing limits intended to give ordinary fans a fair opportunity to attend?
Originally published on October 16, 2026.