Members of the US Congress introduce "Stopping Grinch Bots Act" to penalize predatory scalping and potentially ease supply issues for the PlayStation 5 and graphics cards

With games consoles and consumer graphics cards selling for 2-3 times their MSRP, US legislators recently introduced the Stopping Grinch Bots Act in Congress. The Act seeks to penalize scalpers who use automated bot programs to snap up limited stock of consoles like the PS5 and Series X/S, as well as high-end graphics cards like the GeForce RTX 3080. 

As of now, there's no certainty as to when or if the bill will pass. If it does, though, US gamers could benefit significantly. StockX, a resale platform used by scalpers claimed that as far back as last May, it'd facilitated the sale of over 138,000 PlayStation 5 units at well over double the MSRP. The actual number of units scalper bots picked up could be even higher. 

In the GPU market, a combination of bot scalping and demand from cryptocurrency miners have driven prices even higher than in the console space. In some markets, the GeForce RTX 3080 is selling for as high as US$3000, over four times the original MSRP.

While it might not address the underlying silicon supply issues, the Stopping Grinch Bots Act could go a long way towards stabilizing console and GPU prices. 

Check out the PlayStation 5's availability here on Amazon.