British government
UK officials are making headway in efforts to curb scalping of the PS5 and Xbox Series X / S. MEPs still have some legislative hurdles to overcome, but efforts to put an end to scalpers are moving forward.
The lawsuits against scalpers from next-gen consoles has moved slowly through the process and the UK government is the first government to attempt to curb scalpers. In order to appear to the people, scalpers use bots to give the other customers no chance to buy a next-gen console.
Bots
These bots are also able to purchase the consoles before they even become available to the general public. They then resell the devices for hundreds of euros above the RRP.
At the end of 2020, MEP Douglas Chapman submitted an early day motion to discuss the problem of PS5 scalpers. Chapman said Monday that the motion garnered 32 signatures and that he now intends to move on.
He cited experts in the electronics field who believe the scalper practice will spread to other aspects of the goods and services industry, which is one of the main reasons he thinks he can get the legislation through parliament.
Scalping
Scalping isn’t a brand new problem in the gaming and tech world, but it has gotten new attention with the launch of two new consoles, as well as new graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD, all of which hit the market within a few weeks. The problem is not confined to the UK either.
The same issues have been reported by consumers in Germany and other parts of the world, although the UK is one, if not the first, country to go so far towards legislating against PS5 and Xbox Series X / S scalpers.