UK's anti-scalping bill gains support of more MPs after PS5 launch

Follows the highly-sought-after machines being bought up by resellers.

More MPs have backed a proposition which would see it become illegal to resell computer components, and game consoles like the PlayStation 5 bought with bots.

As reported by IGN, Douglas Chapman – the politician who tabled the Early Day Motion in late 2020 – said that scalping was going to become more of an issue moving forwards. At the time of writing, the motion has been signed by 32 members of Parliament.

"Given that experts in the cyber industry now predict the issue of scalping to grow across other important goods and services this year, we are looking at presenting a Bill in Parliament so that we can further explore legislative options to protect consumers from this unfair practice," Chapman said.

The MP for Dunfermline and West Fife said that he first filed the motion due to his constituents getting in touch with him about being unable to get their hands on the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S at release.

Following the PS5's launch in November 2020, one group called ChepChiefNotify boasted that it had scored 3,5000 consoles – 2,472 on launch and "just under 1,000" pre-orders it secured earlier in the year – using bots.

That same group tried to buy 1,000 Xbox Series X from UK retailer Very, but the company cancelled these orders.

Fellow UK retailer GAME has apparently introduced measures to make sure that customers are only buying one PS5 each. It hasn't all been good news – most of Argos' restock of PS5s at the end of January was snapped up by scalpers.

Yodobashi Camera – a retailer in Tokyo's Akihabara district – has also had to enact measures to make sure that PS5s don't go to resellers.