Security News > 2020 > December > UK lawmakers propose law banning retail bots after PS5 fiasco
A group of lawmakers in the United Kingdom are looking to take on powerful bot organizations openly scalping gaming consoles by proposing potential legislation that would both ban the resale of goods acquired using bots and ban the resale of tech products above the manufacturers' price.
The United States has tried its hand at rules against bots with the FTC's 2016 "Better Online Ticket Sales Act," which was designed to regulate secondary market ticket sales as a response to bots being used to drive up ticket prices.
"The report also notes that industry, consumer, academic, and government stakeholders all doubted that the BOTS Act could be enforced because bots are designed specifically to evade detection."
When it comes to retail login attempts, 40% to 80% of those are by malicious bots and during a flash sale, as much as 90% of a website's traffic may be generated by bots waiting for the new products to begin to sell.
Scalpers are taking advantage of the influx of online shoppers to mask their efforts amid legitimate public interest over an item like the PS5. DeCarlis was wary of how effective legislation would be considering how quickly these bot networks are able to evolve and shift methods, noting that it was on the retailers themselves to do a better job of distinguishing between malicious bots and humans.