When ticket sales opened for Taylor Swift’s summer stadium tour, many fans were frustrated when the only tickets available cost thousands of dollars more than the expected ticket price, writes Jan Murphy for PennLive.

The culprit is what State Representative Steven Malagri, D-Montgomery County, refers to as “Grinch bots.”  The software jumps ahead in line to buy concert tickets or popular online selling times such as video game consoles in bulk, and then resells them at higher prices.

The use of these bots is upsetting not only to customers, but also to artists and entertainment venues, whose relationship with fans can be harmed.

Howard Waltzman, a Mayer Brown attorney representing Live Nation and Ticketmaster, explained that scalpers are using the bots to get around online security measures meant to protect fans’ fair access to tickets.

To combat these bots, Rep. Malagri is advancing a new bill vetted by the House Consumer Protection, Technology & Utilities Committee.

A 2010 Pennsylvania law prohibited the use of ticket purchasing software to buy tickets, but the $5,000 penalty cap hasn’t been enough of an incentive to stop scalpers.

If passed, this new law will strengthen the earlier legislation by banning the use of bots to buy tickets for the purpose of resale, prohibit their use for jumping ahead in electronic waiting lines, and preventing the use of multiple email addresses or internet providers to elude security measures put in place.

Read more about the Montgomery County lawmaker’s new bill in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

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New Taylor Swift concert film coming soon.