Overview

• The FTC filed a complaint on Aug. 18 in Maryland federal court against Key Investment Group and affiliates Epic Seats, TotalTickets.com and Totally Tix, naming executives Yair D. Rozmaryn, Elan N. Rozmaryn and Taylor Kurth for alleged violations of the BOTS Act and the FTC Act.
• Regulators say the operation used thousands of fictitious Ticketmaster accounts, proxy or spoofed IP addresses, SIM banks and numerous virtual and traditional credit cards to bypass purchase caps.
• From Nov. 1, 2022 to Dec. 30, 2023, the defendants allegedly bought about 379,776 tickets for roughly $57 million and resold a portion for about $64 million, including thousands for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and a Bruce Springsteen show.
• In one cited example, 49 accounts purchased 273 tickets for Swift’s March 2023 Las Vegas concert, exceeding the six-ticket limit and netting about $119,000 on resales; for a Springsteen date at MetLife Stadium, 277 accounts secured about 1,530 tickets.
• Key Investment Group denies wrongdoing, argues the BOTS Act is being misapplied, says it used human buyers rather than bots and has already sued the FTC to block its probe, while the agency seeks civil penalties and unspecified damages.