Petition · Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
Ban the use of bots to make purchases on websites
Closed
94 signatures
What the petition asks
Make bot-assisted online purchasing illegal by expanding the 2018 Breaching of Limits on Ticket Sales Regulations to cover all high-demand goods, including collectibles like sneakers, trading cards, and even essentials such as toilet paper.
We believe hobbies like sneaker collecting and trading card games now resemble the stock market, with bots bypassing purchase limits to secure multiple items. We feel captchas are no longer effective as bots have evolved beyond them, creating a grey area under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We also believe this practice is harmful and unethical, as it can inflate prices by allowing items bought at retail to be resold at a higher cost.
Timeline
| 14 Jan 2026 | Petition opened for signatures |
| 14 Jul 2026 | Closed to new signatures |
Key facts
Signatures
94
Status
Closed
Department
Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
Opened
14 Jan 2026
Closed
14 Jul 2026
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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 14 Aug 2026.