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ALBANY, NY— With holiday shopping underway, Congressman Paul D. Tonko (NY-20) reintroduced his legislation, the Stopping Grinch Bots Act that cracks down on cyber Grinches using bot technology to buy up entire inventories of popular holiday toys to resell at exorbitant prices. These third-party sellers use bots to bypass security measures and manipulate online sales systems to buy toys, leading to some toys being almost impossible to buy online or in stores at retail prices. U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), and Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) also introduced this legislation in the Senate.

“Too many Americans have felt the disappointment and frustration of losing a popular toy to Grinch Bots — of spending hours scouring online stores in the hopes of finding an affordable gift or paying exorbitant prices for a single toy,” Congressman Tonko said. “These bots don’t just squeeze consumers, they pose a problem for small businesses, local retailers, and other entrepreneurs trying to ensure they have the best items in stock for their customers. Our Grinch Bots Act works to level the playing field and prevent scalpers from sucking hardworking parents dry this holiday season. Let’s pass this bill at once and ensure that Americans can spend their time this holiday season with their loved ones, not competing with Grinches.”

Based on data from cybersecurity firm Imperva in its 2022 Bad Bot Report, bot-related hits on retail sites rose 10 percent in October and climbed to 34 percent in November. The Stopping Grinch Bots Act is supported by Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Reports, and the National Consumers League.

“Consumers shouldn’t have to fight armies of bots to buy the products they want from the online retailers they want to do business with,” said Erin Witte, Director of Consumer Protection for Consumer Federation of America. “We support outlawing sneaky tactics that shady operators use to corner the market on popular items and then charge consumers excessive prices for them.”

“Shoppers shouldn't have to compete with unscrupulous cyber Grinches who use automated bots to snatch up hundreds of products in a matter of seconds and re-sell them at outrageous prices,” said Chuck Bell, Advocacy Program Director at Consumer Reports. “This bill will help stop this predatory practice and create a more level playing field so everyone has a fair chance of buying popular products at reasonable prices when shopping online.” 

“Competing with other shoppers for in-demand gifts is frustrating enough for hard-working families,” said John Breyault, Vice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications, and Fraud for the National Consumers League. “Resellers employing bot software can make it almost impossible to check off all the items on consumers’ shopping lists. The Stopping Grinch Bots Act is common-sense consumer protection legislation that gives consumers who just want to buy a present a fair chance against the professional resellers.”

Bots are software programs that can automatically spot and snap up inventory on sale online. In a matter of seconds, third-party vendors can purchase hundreds of items, squeezing out parents and children. In 2016, Blumenthal, Schumer, and Tonko’s Better Online Ticket Sales Act (BOTS Act) was signed into law to ban “ticket bots” that intentionally bypass security measures on online ticketing websites to unfairly outprice individual fans. This new legislation would apply the mechanism of the BOTS Act to e-commerce sites to ban bots bypassing security measures on online retail sites.