Ticket Broker Elite Events Settles With FTC For $300K

A Georgia-based ticket broker will pay $300,000 in civil penalties to settle allegations it violated the BOTS Act.

In a complaint, the Federal Trade Commission alleged that Elite Events — which also does business as SmartScalpers and via smartscalpers.com — “used a variety of unlawful tactics to bypass ticket purchasing limits for more than 2,400 different events and resold those tickets on the secondary marketplace at a significant profit,” purchasing millions of dollars worth of tickets to high-profile events.

“For example, Elite Events used 75 accounts to purchase 277 tickets to a Metallica concert at Virginia Tech University between September 2024-March 2025 even though the ticket seller limited purchasers from buying more than six tickets,” the FTC said. “After Elite Events spent between $50 to $270 per ticket, they resold the tickets in the secondary marketplace for $100 to $400 per ticket, according to the complaint.”

The FTC alleged Elite Events used hundreds of purchasing accounts, created under fictitious names or with names of the firm’s employees; created virtual credit card numbers; and operated using IP proxy services and multi-session browsers, which, the FTC says, allowed the company to bypass controls set up by the primary ticketing services.

The proposed order establishes civil penalties of $10.7 million with all but the $300,000 suspended. The full amount will be payable if the company’s principles — Kevin W. McKerley and Aaron L. Vera — are found to have lied about their finances. In addition, Elite Events is barred from the behavior alleged in the original complaint.