In a statement to IGN, Chapman indicated that he now intends to take the issue further: “Given that cyber industry experts now predict that the issue of scalping will grow in other important goods and services this year, we are considering submitting a bill on the Parliament so that we can explore more legislative options to protect consumers from this unfair practice. “The first motions are used regularly to highlight current issues, but rarely reach a real debate in the House of Commons. Presenting a bill, as Chapman is now considering, would be considered an escalation of the process and an attempt to pressure the government to consider formal legislation.
Asked why Chapman started this process, he explained that the impetus to start the debate in parliament came directly from his voters in Dunfermline and West Fife:
“The scalping issue came up first when the constituents contacted me to explain their frustration at not being able to purchase certain game consoles or computer components before Christmas. In the investigation, we discovered more details of the unscrupulous practice of ‘scalping’ by automated bots to buy these products en masse and sell them at inflated prices. “The scalping issue reached new levels of recognition after the launch of the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, as well as new graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD. In the United States, it is estimated that at least 10% of PS5s have been resold, averaging about twice the recommended retail price on eBay. An integral part of this phenomenon has been the use of bots to protect units before regular consumers can do so, a tactic popularized by tennis culture.
The UK has seen a huge demand for new generation consoles, and scalping has become a recurring story amid that demand. Scalping chains have conquered a large number of consoles, even using loopholes to buy stock before it was officially available. Along with the scarcity of supplies, it is a trend that has led to repeated disappointments for normal consumers and even spurred criminal activity.
Joe Skrebels is the Executive News Editor at IGN. Follow him on Twitter. Do you have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Send an email to [email protected].