US bill to outlaw bots purchasing consoles, graphics cards – report

US lawmakers are reintroducing a bill that would outlaw the use of bots to make purchases in online stores, PCMag reported, Tuesday, November 30.

Bots have been in use to procure products such as game consoles, graphics cards, shoes, and other items. Often, these bots can snatch up products faster than a person. Some individuals may use bots to purchase sought-after items for the purpose of reselling, often at significant markups, leaving behind consumers that genuinely want the product.

The bill is called the “Stopping Grinch Bots Act.” “The bicameral bill will 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,” said Democratic lawmakers in a statement.

Democractic Senator Chuck Schumer compared the act of using scalper-run bots as holding in-demand items for ransom.

The bill is an expansion of an earlier law passed in 2016, called the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act, that outlawed bots used in purchasing tickets for events like concerts and sporting events. The law also made it illegal for scalpers to resell tickets acquired by the bot. The Grinch Bots Act, would apply the structure of the BOTS Act to e-commerce sites, covering those that sell sought-after items like the PlayStation 5 and Nvidia GPUs, with the US Federal Trade Commission tasked with enforcement.

“The average holiday shopper is unable to compete with the light speed of the all-too-common Grinch bot and are then held at ransom by scalpers and third-party resellers when trying to buy holiday presents,” PCMag quoted Schumer. – Rappler.com