{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://tonko.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4049", "Tonko, Blumenthal, Schumer, Luj\u00e1n Introduce Bill to Stop Cyber Grinch Bots", "2023-12-21", "2023", "2023-12", "Democrat", "House", "NY", "Paul Tonko", "T000469", "tonko.house.gov", "tonko", "https://tonko.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "ALBANY, NY\u2014 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 Luj\u00e1n (D-NM) also introduced this legislation in the Senate.\n\n\u201cToo many Americans have felt the disappointment and frustration of losing a popular toy to Grinch Bots \u2014 of spending hours scouring online stores in the hopes of finding an affordable gift or paying exorbitant prices for a single toy,\u201d Congressman Tonko said. \u201cThese bots don\u2019t 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\u2019s pass this bill at once and ensure that Americans can spend their time this holiday season with their loved ones, not competing with Grinches.\u201d\n\nBased 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.\n\n\u201cConsumers shouldn\u2019t have to fight armies of bots to buy the products they want from the online retailers they want to do business with,\u201d said Erin Witte, Director of Consumer Protection for Consumer Federation of America. \u201cWe support outlawing sneaky tactics that shady operators use to corner the market on popular items and then charge consumers excessive prices for them.\u201d\n\n\u201cShoppers 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,\u201d said Chuck Bell, Advocacy Program Director at Consumer Reports. \u201cThis 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.\u201d\n\n\u201cCompeting with other shoppers for in-demand gifts is frustrating enough for hard-working families,\u201d said John Breyault, Vice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications, and Fraud for the National Consumers League. \u201cResellers employing bot software can make it almost impossible to check off all the items on consumers\u2019 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.\u201d\n\nBots 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\u2019s Better Online Ticket Sales Act (BOTS Act) was signed into law to ban \u201cticket bots\u201d 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.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:14:16Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://tonko.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4049"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4249556697905064, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}