Could State AGs use RICO to stop Ticket Scalpers and Bots?
THe Federal Trade Commision is taking a more aggressive stance against ticket scalpers and their use of bots. Could State Attorney Generals a use RICO to stop ticket scalpers and bots?
Could State Attorneys General Use RICO to stop Ticket Scalpers and Bots?
by CHRIS CASTLE via Music Tech Policy
The Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Maryland against Key Investment Group—a ticket reseller operating under names like Epic Seats, TotalTickets.com, and Totally Tix. The FTC alleges that, between November 1, 2022, and December 30, 2023, the company used thousands of fictitious or purchased Ticketmaster accounts, along with spoofed IP addresses, proxy networks, virtual credit cards, and SIM-box setups, to evade purchasing limits on high-demand events, including Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. Altogether, the defendants purchased 379,776 tickets at a cost of nearly $57 million, reselling many for approximately $64 million—notably, 273 tickets for one Swift concert were acquired via 49 different accounts, far exceeding the six-ticket per-event limit.
KIG-FiledComplaint-RedactedDownload
The FTC alleges violations of both the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act, which prohibits circumventing online ticketing controls, and the broader FTC Act, prohibiting unfair or deceptive business practices.
Key Investment Group’s defenses are likely to be that the company employs human buyers, not bots, and therefore the FTC is misapplying the BOTS Act and that the lawsuit risks dismantling the secondary ticket market and ending competition, benefiting only major corporate players. You mean like StubHub?
TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDER AND KID ROCK
This case is part of an expanded federal effort spurred by an executive order from March 2025 issued after President Trump met with Kid Rock (which no doubt annoys resellers to no end) to promote transparency and fairness in ticket resale markets and to curb predatory resale tactics. The FTC’s action reflects growing regulatory scrutiny of ticketing practices that disadvantage ordinary consumers at both the federal and state levels.
Recall that the authors of the Obama-era BOTS Act were recently complaining that the FTC had rarely enforced the law. It seems unlikely that the FTC’s enforcement action against Key Investment Group would have occurred without the broader policy momentum catalyzed by President Trump’s executive order targeting ticket scalping and abusive resale practices. That order directed federal agencies, including the FTC and DOJ, to prioritize investigations and enforcement actions addressing deceptive or anticompetitive conduct in the live events and ticketing industries.
The Executive Order was followed by public consultation processes jointly initiated by the DOJ and FTC to gather information on how ticket resellers were impacting consumer access and market fairness. These actions created a clear regulatory mandate to pursue high-profile investigations like the one brought against Key Investment Group.
THE ELEMENTS OF A RICO CASE
If the FTC case sounds like racketeering, that’s because it does. To make a RICO case—federal or state—prosecutors must show
1. Enterprise: a structured association, formal or informal.
2. Pattern of racketeering activity: at least two predicate crimes within ten years.
3. Predicate acts: crimes like wire fraud, mail fraud, computer fraud, access device fraud, or identity theft.
4. Continuity: conduct that is ongoing or poses a threat of continuing harm.
The FTC’s complaint practically hands this up on a silver platter. Multiple interlocking LLCs (Key Investment Group, TotalTickets.com, Totally Tix, Front Rose Tix, WLK Investments) plus individual managers provide the “enterprise.” The use of fake accounts, bots, and deceptive transactions can likely be recast as wire fraud and computer fraud the classic RICO predicates. And the continuity is obvious: the complaint says the conduct has persisted from 2016 through today .
WHY STATE AGS MIGHT STEP IN
Maryland, where the FTC complaint was filed, has its own “little RICO” statute covering fraud and computer crimes. New York, home of Broadway and countless high-demand events, has a particularly aggressive RICO analogue and ticketing laws. California’s RICO law is broad enough to capture repeated fraudulent ticket sales. Texas, where live music is central to the state’s identity, also has a “pattern of criminal activity” framework under Penal Code § 71.02.
For any—or all—of these states, the hook is the same: Inflated resale markets injured consumers, competitors, and venues. State AGs could frame this not just as ticket fraud but as organized racketeering targeting the public.
WHY THIS MATTERS: Could State Attorney Generals a use RICO to stop ticket scalpers and bots?
The FTC’s complaint seeks civil penalties and injunctions. But a state RICO action could carry treble damages, asset forfeiture, and potentially criminal exposure. That shift in remedies would change the incentives dramatically for defendants who have so far treated civil fines as a cost of doing business.
And beyond punishment, it would send a signal: ticket botting isn’t just unfair—it’s racketeering.
The Key Investment Group case shows how federal consumer protection law can take scalpers to court. But the real leverage may lie with state attorneys general dusting off their RICO statutes . The conduct alleged looks less like simple scalping and more like the sustained fraud of an organized enterprise.At the center of the ticketing racket are professional resellers. These unregulated market makers profit from artificial scarcity, data manipulation, and price distortion. There likely would be no scalping worthy of a federal statute, an executive order, or FTC resources without resellers like the usual suspects. Their influence shapes both supply and price visibility, allowing them to act as financial intermediaries. Far from being passive participants, resellers actively structure the market’s dysfunction, functioning as the operational core of a broader racketeering enterprise that exploits fans and artists alike.
That’s the kind of case “little RICO” laws were made for.
