Six SNP MPs have tabled a motion this week which has called for legislation which would prohibit the resale of "gaming consoles and computer components at prices greatly above the manufacturer's recommended retail price."

These early-day motions are designed to allow members of parliament to draw attention to particular subjects of interest. This week's motion called for the resale of goods purchased using bots, software used by scalpers to circumvent retail queues, to become an illegal activity.

It has been suggested that the government takes similar actions to the action that was taken against the resale of tickets for football matches, musical performances and other events. The banning of bots would deny "unscrupulous vendors" the opportunity to generate vast profits from gamers and computer users and deter "fraudulent criminal activity".

Today, consoles like the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are not available in large enough quantities to meet demand. PC gamers are also finding new graphics cards and CPUs difficult to access. This situation has allowed console/PC hardware scalpers to generate huge profits on eBay and other resale websites.

At this time it is unknown if parliament will take action against console and PC hardware scalpers. Either way, their action will likely come too late to make things easier for today's console/hardware buyers.