Editorial UK Parliament Members Aim to Introduce Bill to Fight Scalping... But the Problem is a Complex One

[Caring1]

With them out of EU the price of stuff in the UK are only about to go up, up, up.

Wouldn't that be the other way around?
Without the U.K. subsidising EU, the prices in Europe will rise.

 

[HTC]

I have seen scalping of toilet paper.
Since then, it's impossible to remove from my head that humans are primal animals stupid as hell, even though some of them manage to be smart enough


This is illegal since they know stock is limited, and they are creating a monopoly. And monopoly is illegal in pretty much every country.
As you said, there would be no problem and no scalping if production capacity was unknown and somehow high

I wish what happened to this guy happened to EVERY SINGLE ONE of these scalpers.

 

[qubit]

Too many people in power with vested interests to ever have this problem fixed. All that really needs to happen is to make it expensive for them to do this and the problem goes away, or at least reduces significantly. No lengthy and ineffective court action needed.

In my case, I bought my RTX 2080 SUPER (see specs) in March last year as a "temporary" card to play CoD:MW online* with my friends, intending to buy the 3080 when it came out and sell this one. However, with all the out of stock everywhere and scalping, I've still got the 2080 and no sign of that upgrade.

I was lucky to get it when I did and at a good price, too. It's literally impossible to buy a high end card now without getting it at some inflated price off some dodgy eBay seller, not even the inherently price-inflated RTX 3090. This is beyond annoying and I'm not going to do it.

*My old 780 Ti can play it, but performance is pretty crap, so didn't wanna live with that for months and am really glad I bought that card, now.

 

[zlobby]

Wouldn't that be the other way around?
Without the U.K. subsidising EU, the prices in Europe will rise.

I guess only time will tell. Only one thing is for sure - the island has very much limited resources.

UK is even struggling badly with workforce for the agriculture. Up to now they were mainly importing such people. I'm trying to imagine how much a pound of tomatoes will cost now, when the only people left to plow the fields are the once proud Brits?

 

[medi01]

You do realize those are dictatorships are different than democracies right? I don't see how the UK is comparable to those. If your point was that government is bad, the police, public schooling, public healthcare, and much much more has existed for a long time now. Hopefully you read about the industrial revolution and the meat packing industry? You sure the government did a poor job cleaning that industry up?

It's a dumb point to make as not only are you comparing apples to oranges, you ignore the fact that wise management from the government has existed for a long time now. The quality of a democratic government largely depends on the people and the system.

I have lived in USSR, kid, so I got news to you about dictatorships and "bad police" or "bad schooling" or "bad public healthcare".
The second of the three is particularly amusing to hear: it was one of the few things it soviets were good at.
Now healthcare... it depends what country you compare it to.
It was universal.
When I had fever as a kid a doctor would visit me at home (!!!).

It didn't turn USSR into heaven, or even a country with decent level of living (again, reservations apply as there are dozens of always capitalists countries which have never riched that level), but it wasn't like you think it was.

Dictatorships (which Venezuela isn't, for the record, authoritarian - yes) just happen to be stupid enough to even try "regulating" prices like that.

I didn't realize saying "keeping price artificially low doesn't help supply meet demand" was a hard concept to comprehend.

 

[moproblems99]

I'm trying to imagine how much a pound of tomatoes will cost now, when the only people left to plow the fields are the once proud Brits?

It's going to be just like the US because ain't none of them 'proud' Brits or Americans are actually going to do 'work'. In other words, them proud Brits are going to get used to canned tomatoes.

 

[robot zombie]

I have a very simple solution to scalping, I just don't buy. Hurt the companies bottom line and scalping will come to a crashing halt.

I was going to build a 4k gaming rig. But now I'm not. Money saved.

/thread

Yep, I wont even consider 4k and things like this are part of the reason. I bought nice headphones instead. Thier loss.

 

[Renald]

A monopoly is not illegal, the road getting there might be, depending. Twitter has a monopoly, just ask Parler.

Twitter has a monopoly on what ? Posting messages readable by anyone ? You're kidding ? You just posted a small message readable by anyone

Apple can exclusively make iPhone, not a monopoly.
Samsung can exclusively make Galaxy smartphone, not a monopoly.
But none of them has the right to hold smartphone sells.

From wikipedia :
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity.
Likewise, a monopoly should be distinguished from a cartel (a form of oligopoly), in which several providers act together to coordinate services, prices or sale of goods
In many jurisdictions, competition laws restrict monopolies due to government concerns over potential adverse effects. Holding a dominant position or a monopoly in a market is often not illegal in itself, however certain categories of behavior can be considered abusive and therefore incur legal sanctions when business is dominant.

 

[moproblems99]

@Renald , so what is the current legal issue? Currently, there isn't even a monopoly because there are more than one scalper so you have multiple places to get them. Given that, you probably couldn't even win a monopoly lawsuit. Good luck!

 

[trog100]

some members of parliament are pretty stupid.. this is just one example of how stupid some of them can be..

many years ago just after WW11 the UK had something called the retail price maintenance act this basically fixed prices at whatever the manufacture put on the tin.. long ago it was scrapped..

since then price fixing has been illegal in the UK hence the term recommended on a price label..

do these idiots want to try and move the clock back 70 years.. it seems so..

trog

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Holding a dominant position or a monopoly in a market is often not illegal in itself, however certain categories of behavior can be considered abusive and therefore incur legal sanctions when business is dominant.

my point exactly, I only used Twitter as an example. Section 230 means no one can sue twitter for censorship of free speech, banning people for made up excuses, which covers the 2nd half of that line. Lets not get started on what twitter does to 'self' advertisers, yes they are subject to banning too.

 

[trog100]

there does seem to be pattern here.. power and money is moving into fewer and fewer hands.. monopoly power will be the new normal.. big tech will end up running the world..

and being as modern elections (the winners) are bought and paid for there aint no way of stopping this.. democracy becomes a fraud when the votes can be bought..

trog

 

[moproblems99]

there does seem to be pattern here.. power and money is moving into fewer and fewer hands.. monopoly power will be the new normal.. big tech will end up running the world..

and being as modern elections (the winners) are bought and paid for there aint no way of stopping this.. democracy becomes a fraud when the votes can be bought..

trog

The basis of politics is; you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. They key is doing it without destroying your constituents and not being a douchebag. That is the problem we all have right now. Pleas note: final comment on this topic for me.

 

[Renald]

my point exactly, I only used Twitter as an example. Section 230 means no one can sue twitter for censorship of free speech, banning people for made up excuses, which covers the 2nd half of that line. Lets not get started on what twitter does to 'self' advertisers, yes they are subject to banning too.

I agree with @moproblems99 , this is a weird monopoly : "scalpers" as a group holds the whole market, but in fact it's not a monopoly, more like abuse of dominant position of some investors.
But Twitter, WTH are you talking about man ?

You can express yourself freely and publicly wherever you want on the Internet. That's all Twitter does. Twitter let you use their platform to "channel" the content provided, but that's nothing else. People talked publicly before Twitter, people had friends online before Facebook, people made selfie before Snapchat, people exchange messages before Whatsapp.
They don't have any kind of monopoly, like Google don't have any monopoly on search engines. You're banned from google research ? It doesn't mean your disappear from Internet browsing.