When Did We Think Any Law Would Stop Bots From Grabbing Hot Items?
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A group of Democrats are introducing the “Stopping Grinch Bots Act,” a proposal with an incredibly stupid name that is aimed at preventing (or at least curtailing) the use of bots to snatch up stocks of goods from online retailers. Something many of you trying to get PS5s and new graphics cards have been struggling with mightily over the last 18 months.
Representative Paul Tonko, Senator Richard Blumenthal, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Senator Ben Ray Luján, announced the bill on November 29, which aims to “crack down on cyber Grinches using ‘bot’ technology to quickly buy up whole inventories of popular holiday toys and resell them to parents at higher prices.”
This isn’t the first time Democrat lawmakers have tried this; as PCMag points out, this is actually a reintroduction of a bill that never went anywhere back in 2019. It’s hoped that this time the drastic rise of bots and scalping in the months since the pandemic started will lead to greater support.