Yahoo Auctions Japan is fighting scalping by banning sellers from listing new games at higher than retail price
A cap on sale price will be implemented for the first month of each game’s release
Yahoo is tackling scalping in Japan by placing a ban on selling any new game for more than its retail price.
The company – which runs the popular Yahoo Auctions and Yahoo Flea Market sites in Japan – has announced that every new game release will have a cap on how much it can be sold for.
According to Yahoo, every time a new game is released in Japan, a restriction will be placed on it for its first month, during which sellers won’t be able to sell the game for any more than its retail asking price.
“In recent years, particularly immediately after release, popular items have been resold at prices significantly above the manufacturer’s suggested retail price, causing problems and raising demands to create an environment where users can trade at proper, fair prices,” the statement reads (via machine translation).
“On Yahoo! Flea Market and Yahoo! Auctions, we have until now responded to unfair resale practices such as listings without inventory and image theft. For the recently released Nintendo Switch 2 in June 2025, in order to prevent market disruption in the secondary distribution market, we took a strong step and prohibited listings.
“Now, to continue ensuring a safe environment for usage, we will implement, from Thursday 13 November 2025, in the game category, a measure to prohibit the sale of new game software at prices above MSRP for a certain period. We will continue to strive to realise a fair and healthy trading environment, and appreciate your understanding and cooperation.”
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Yahoo says that if it finds a listing that violates its guidelines by attempting to sell a game for more than its retail price, it will delete the listing and potentially suspend the seller’s account.
This is the latest attempt by a Japanese company to fight the problem of scalping. Ahead of the release of Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo announced that it had formed a partnership with Yahoo!, Mercari and Rakuten Rakuma to prevent “the unauthorised listing of products related to Nintendo, including the Nintendo Switch 2″.
Nintendo and the three marketplaces vowed to take action against ‘unauthorised’ Switch 2 listings, including “proactive listing removal” and the setup of a co-operative framework that will let each marketplace share information.
