Members form the UK Parliament are apparently preparing to introduce a bill that would regulate the scalping phenomenon that's being witnessed worldwide. According to Scottish politician Douglas Chapman, in an interview to IGN, "The issue of scalping first came up with constituents contacting me to explain their frustration about being unable to get hold of certain games consoles or computer components pre-Christmas." He then expanded on that by adding that "On investigation, we uncovered more details of the unscrupulous practice of 'scalping' by automated bots to bulk buy these goods and sell them on at inflated prices." Oh, and this bill is unlikely to pass, by the way.

Scalping, however, isn't done only in the UK; it's a pervasive international issue that crosses borders. And scalping, as it is known, is nothing but a form of speculation, which some might say is part of the backbone that keeps the world's capitalist blood pumping through the economy - some might even argue that scalping occurs directly due to mechanisms of supply and demand, and thus, isn't an unlawful activity in and of itself. Companies, corporations, and all other legal entities, however, have to adhere to strict anti-monopoly/anti-cartelization laws, which deal with the same base issue, although in another facet of it. The problem is that it appears that in some countries, speculation is regulated at the enterprise level, but not at the citizen level. And herein lies the crux of it.Speaking as a Portuguese resident, Portugal does have anti-speculation laws. In fact, they are enshrined in our Criminal Code. In essence, Portuguese law defines the crime of speculation as "the sale of goods or services at prices above those permitted by law", and as "the sale of goods or services at pricing higher than the one affixed in tags, lists, or other ways of public pricing disclosure made available by the manufacturer, distributor, or service provider". This, of course, means that all citizens selling products above MSRP are incurring in the crime of speculation, and is automatically universal: it applies to everything, from concert tickets for summer festivals to technology goods and everything in-between. Of course, having the crime enshrined in law is only half a step; the other half is actually executing the required investigation, due process, and ultimately, reaching a court decision. This is where most of the issues remain to be ironed out - at least in Portugal.

So, there is precedent in countries around the world regarding the criminalization of speculation. However, this will have to be adapted to each countries' code; and will then have to be enforced (with all the problems, delays, and due process for those particular steps). even where this law exists, it is likely that the law will have to be revised so as to consider the usage of automated bots for the purchasing process.I suppose one good way of increasing the reach of these pro-consumer laws is by holding reselling platforms - such as eBay - responsible for the pricing practiced under their purview. One doesn't have to think too hard that reselling platforms - which do take a share of the profits, as we've shown over and over again - are raking in profits from an operation that is - or in some places, should become - illegal. Should these platforms be criminally accountable for profits taken from illegal conducts in their ecosystem, that would give them the necessary budge, so to speak, for them to implement actual anti-scalping measures. Deny scalpers their sale and distribution platforms, and you have taken away most of their internet-magnified power.Scalping brings profits; and as such, and considering a certain faction of humanity's propensity for narcissism and egomaniacal ventures, it's only a matter of time before scalping extends its reach to other products - whether on the technological side of things, as we see with the latest graphics cards, games consoles, and even gaming laptops; or to other things which have a much more real impact in people's lives. There only need to be two elements for a product to be scalp-worthy: limited supply, and high desirability.

Legislation will have to be put forward by countries who don't currently have it, international task forces will have to be assembled to deal and investigate cross-border practices, and companies will have to integrate the most fundamental ways of customer-checking, such as Captchas, for this issue to if not go away, at least become manageable. Until then, we'll just have to wade and wallow through articles upon articles such as this one. And if countries and legislative bodies only take action when scalping reaches other product areas that are more crucial to society's functioning than the latest gaming graphics cards, it might be too late to avoid some disastrous consequences.This post is marked as an Editorial