Opinion: The FTC, GameStop, game gutting and a modest solution

Once again we find the subject being our most love-to-hate video game retail giant, GameStop, at the center of another consumer foul. This time the illegal kind.

Kotaku took it upon themselves to claim what thousands of consumers have already claimed, that selling employee “checked out” games as new is illegal. However, Kotaku, rather than whine on a forum, point blank asked the Federal Trade Commission where the legality of this practice stood among the FTC’s rules and guidelines.

How did the FTC respond? How did you think they were going to respond? With a generic “no comment” statement. And who could blame them? What you are asking the FTC to comment on is something of conjecture. Yes, we consumers know that certain GameStop retail stores do have employees that “check out” un-played games but to make a case of this you have to have physical evidence that such an action took place.