3 ms·
This feels ill thought through and likely to cause unintended side effects. There's no strong reason why we don't all get our purchases done my machine, it cou
by nmstoker 6y ago
This feels ill thought through and likely to cause unintended side effects.
There's no strong reason why we don't all get our purchases done my machine, it could be much handier if we said "Alexa buy item X from shop Y with such and such condition" (it needn't be Alexa of course).
What does this do to the MSRP by giving it special status? How is competition affected?
What if people genuinely don't want an item they bought for reasons that aren't initially apparent?
Where does buying by machine stop and start? Is the browser part of a machine?
For me the most compelling concern though is that it conflates a proxy for abuse with an abuse - why not simply target the abuse and let reasonable people who have some unstated reason to buy using a machine carry on unimpeded.
There are also trivially easy ways that companies could reduce abuse. You would allocate people a ticket at random perhaps giving no more than one ticket to each pre-registered payment method and then hold a lottery so only certain ones would proceed - then it's no longer about crazy fast reflexes of a machine it's about chance and all participants get an equal chance without needing to resort to legislation.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- whatatita 6y agoThis seems like a pretty typical political response to cyber problems. Props to the MPs that saw a problem here but their unfamiliarity with the problem domain has lead to a pretty shoddy bill. I agree that price gouging is a problem and that mass-purchasing for that reason is an issue. There are better solutions though, surely.
- whatatita 6y agoAnother solution that comes to mind is to remove the ability to resell newly released items within a period after their initial release. The first few weeks after initially going on sale is the time where an item is still highly coveted and the manufacturer doesn't have the capacity to create more. In that same window, bulk-purchasers cannot often afford to sit on the item for weeks on end. If they made it illegal to - for example - resell an item fro more than 10% higher than the retail price within the first 3 months, most price gougers wouldn't be able to afford it.
- whatatita 6y agoYou could also impose a limit on the number of items a person can buy by law - similar t some shops do to try to stymie selling out of highly coveted items. They could impose a maximum of 3 purchases per person. Then shops and payment processors would have to enforce this rule.