Walmarts unacceptable hosting of scalpers.

Walmart will face no fines shpuld they choose to price gouge game consoles. Such laws currently, sadly, only apply to life essentials.

Walmart like Massin and others host 3rd party sellers, and such ads are generated by algorithm. WM is likely required to charge base price by their contracts with Microsoft, but no legal entity will enforce this

If you wish the law changed, petition your representatives.

Even with automated factories, they still need staff to run them....for 3 months last year, the Far East was in total lockdown with no manufacturing at all

As mentioned above, there are only 2 factories worldwide that makes a component critical to the process....take into account the pandemic and it's effect on manufacturing and they would have been struggled to cope with demand (given the huge surge in people buying electronics due to working from home). However, you then need to factor in 2 new consoles, 2 CPU makers releasing new products (AMD and Intel...I think 6+ CPU variants), 2 GPU manufacturers releasing new products (AMD and NVIDIA with at least 10 products between them, and more...and then add in the various 3rd party suppliers).

The huge demand for these new products (I know of people who ordered systems with 3080 GPUs when they were released in September that were still waiting for their systems in Febraury due to supply problems) has just overwhemed the entire manufacturing sector. IMO all of these companies should have delayed release till after things calmed down but then that's not the way the world works

Section 1125(a)(1) of the Lanham Act prohibits sales practices that are likely to cause a consumer to be misled as to the origin of goods and/or the nature or characteristics of a product. If the product has a MSRP of $499, and the manufacturer itself has links to official retailers, it is EXPECTED that the official retailers will be selling at the MSRP! Simple!

Otherwise it gets very shady litigiously, and if for example, they are covertly linking instead to a third party retailer (non-official) in the guise of an official retailer (lets say Walmart), yet selling far above the msrp...that could easily be an anti-trust issue, as not only is the consumer expecting the MSRP from the manufacturer and their official linked retailers, but they are also unwillingly allowing the manufacturer and a scalper to both profit off said confusion! This is not a trivial point from a litigation and ethics standpoint! Scenarios like this are precisely why the FTC and Dept of consumer affairs exist.

I'm well aware that it's not walmart themselves selling at that price. However the listing is portrayed as and official listing. Nowhere is there a mention of the 3rd party distributor making the sale, at least not on the page you get directed to from Xbox.com. In order to see the 3rd party information you must search for the product directly from their search. All of the ratings and comments on this listing pertaining to the product itself, painting the picture that this is an official Xbox listing.

I was growing up as the internet was evolving. And while I have the experience to spot when things are suspicious or not right, not everyone does. Look at the screenshot of the listing I'm speaking of. This listing is what you are directed to when you follow the hyperlink provided by "check availability." Xbox.com is directly linking me to a scalpers listing, which in turn could be directly feeding customers to scalpers.

By Xbox.com linking me to this page, it makes me question whether the company even cares that their product is actively being scalped. I mean your website directs straight to them, almost as if saying "Here take out customers." If I didn't know any better I'd say one or both companies are profiting from these 3rd party sales, which is why all of the 3rd party information is hidden on the linked page.

Walmart will face no fines shpuld they choose to price gouge game consoles. Such laws currently, sadly, only apply to life essentials.

Walmart like Massin and others host 3rd party sellers, and such ads are generated by algorithm. WM is likely required to charge base price by their contracts with Microsoft, but no legal entity will enforce this

If you wish the law changed, petition your representatives.

That's the same everywhere unfortunately...big retailers can, generally, do what they like it seems

For me, the issue I see is the listing is misleading.....it has a scalper price so is, presumably, a scalper, ye the image is saying "Available on All Access" which is clearly not the case. Presumably the lister chose that picture (or maybe it's automatically added by Wlamart) but it's still misleading