A certain group of British Members of Parliament have already started a move against scalpers who took advantage of selling PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S for larger profits than its Manufacture’s Recommended Retail Price.
Six Scottish National Party has started an Early Day Motion just recently, which called for legislative proposals prohibiting the resale of gaming consoles and computer components at prices greatly above MSRP. An Early Day Motion is something that the Members of the Parliament formally call on for debate in the House so that they can make a decision for particular topics.
The recent motion has called on the UK government to take action on individuals or groups that use automated bots to purchase items and then resale them with higher prices and make those activities illegal. The MPs suggest that implement a legislative proposal similar to ticket secondary selling. This would require resellers to be transparent in regards to identity and details of seating.
The motion states as follows:
New releases of gaming consoles and computer components should be available to all customers at no more than the Manufacturer’s Recommended Retail Price, and not be bought in bulk by the use of automated bots which often circumvent maximum purchase quantities imposed by the retailer.
Action banning bots would [deny] unscrupulous vendors the chance to make themselves vast profits at the expense of genuine gamers and computer users, while also deterring fraudulent cybercriminal activity.
Demand of the new generation of consoles have been high and scalpers have taken advantage of that and abused that kind of power. This legislation could potentially curb this issue and hopefully a more permanent solution could rise in the future.
Source: VGC
