Malagari legislation to prevent ‘Grinch Bots’ from buying up tickets & popular products passes PA House
Rep. Steve Malagari October 28, 2025
HARRISBURG, Oct. 28 – Legislation to prevent scalpers from using software to purchase items over the internet in bulk for the sole purpose of mass resale at exorbitant prices passed the Pennsylvania House today and is now eligible for consideration by the state Senate.
“Pennsylvania consumers have the right to a fair marketplace, and I introduced this measure because it’s the state legislature’s duty to help maintain it,” said the bill’s author, state Rep. Steve Malagari, D-Montgomery. “This legislation creates an important obstacle to predatory miscreants who are trying to manipulate our economy and keep people from having their fair shot to buy tickets and products in high demand.”
Malagari said today’s scalpers use a type of software application known as a “Grinch Bot” that circumvents online sales platforms’ control measures, allowing the scalper to automatically buy up products in bulk and then relist them for sale at a much higher price than the original seller intended. House Bill 1063 would thwart Grinch Bots by making it unlawful to use software that accesses sales platforms’ control systems to alter their security measures and other technological controls that enforce purchasing limits. It would update a 2013 law concerning ticket purchasing software to define “bots” and modernize other relevant terminology to make sure software can’t be used for bulk purchasing, whether resale is intended or not.
“When I was a kid, the only “Grinch” in my vocabulary was the Dr. Seuss version who popped up on TV around the holidays – and kids like me who’d saved our allowance to buy our first Nintendo console didn’t worry about him getting between us and our gaming goals,” Malagari said. “But a Grinch Bot is what foiled thousands of my constituents last year when they tried to buy Taylor Swift pre-sale tickets. Scalpers hoarded virtually all of them, and listed them for resale at prices up to $28,000.”
In addition to customers, Malagari said services providers, vendors, entertainers, venues and retailers are frustrated by Grinch Bots and have reached out to him and his colleagues to request they enact policies that protect businesses who rely on online sales, as the increasing number of scams cause customers to give up on making certain types of online purchases.
“I hope the Senate passes this commonsense measure quickly – let’s deliver this added protection for the people of Pennsylvania before the holiday shopping season begins,” Malagari said.