HARRISBURG, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — A Montgomery County state lawmaker is renewing efforts to ban the use of online “grinch bots” to buy up high-demand tickets or products to resell them at a profit.
Democratic state Rep. Steve Malagari’s bill would prohibit the use of software designed to circumvent security measures, electronic queues, or purchasing limits to buy and hoard items online to resell at a higher price.
“Consumers have been harmed and real people trying to just buy a ticket for something are unable to do so a lot of the time,” Malagari said. “Not just a ticket — we're talking about consumer goods as well.”
Examples he offered were high-demand sneakers, video game consoles and the hot Christmas present that stores can’t keep in stock.
“The reality is that when you have technology working in a nefarious way, I think it's up to us to try and prevent that part from occurring, or at least disincentivize that type of activity,” he said.
The bill advanced out of the Pennsylvania House Communications and Technology Committee, 24-2.
State Rep. Robert Leadbeter (R-Columbia County) was one of only two votes against the latest version as it passed out of committee, questioning if government intervention is the solution.
“There are certainly bad actors out there that wish to weaponize the advancements of technology to nefarious ends,” he said. “The free market has always responded in a way to be able to counteract that.”
Federal law allows civil penalties for ticket bots, but efforts to expand it to other consumer goods have fallen short. Supporters of the legislation say retailers can’t keep up. “They can't do it on their own,” said state Rep. Joe Ciresi (D-Montgomery County). “They're getting caught up with this, and it's costing them millions of dollars just to take this on.”
Malagari’s bill heads to the full House. A version of it passed last session with strong bipartisan support, but the session ended before the Senate could pass it.