shortage of PS5 and Xbox consoles fuels demands for criminalisation of scalping

The shortage of PS5 and Xbox consoles fuels demands for criminalisation of scalping

Scalping is the practice of using bots to buy multiple units and then sell them on for a marked-up price. Units of the recent Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles are already quickly selling out even a month after the usual Christmas peak in demand whenever retailers release new stock. By regulating sales to one per address, online retailers have attempted to suppress scalpers, but reselling has become a profitable market for scalpers to find ways to sidestep these efforts.The practise of scalping is entirely legitimate, but Douglas Chapman MP is one of the members of parliament calling for it to be criminalised, describing it to Sky News as “profiteering” adding: “It seems to me a total scam.” It has made it particularly difficult to buy a console since, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all stores have moved online.

Mr. Chapman has brought forth the bill of a private member called the Gaming Hardware (Automated Purchasing and Resale) Bill 2019-21, which will prohibit it in a similar way to how a few years ago ticket touting was banned. The MP of the Scottish National Party accepted that the bill was unlikely to become law, but said it was one of the acts within his authority to compel the government to “take responsibility” for the issue.