Nintendo teams up with Japanese auction sites to combat scalpers

Nintendo has announced a partnership with several Japanese auction platforms to combat what it calls “fraudulent listings” of Nintendo-related products, including the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2. The company will be working with Mercari, Yahoo! Auctions, and Rakuten Rakuma to prevent scalping of the Switch 2 and other Nintendo merchandise. These platforms will collaborate to remove such listings, share information, and prevent users from posting across multiple sites.

While preorders and availability of the Switch 2 in Australia have remained relatively relaxed—with some retailers only recently halting launch-day preorders—the situation has been far more intense in Japan and other regions. In Japan, the demand has led to multiple lottery systems for preorders, and Nintendo even acknowledged at one point that it might not be able to produce enough units to meet domestic demand.

Also in Japan, the My Nintendo Store‘s terms and conditions prohibit reselling the console (though how long that rule remains in place is anyone’s guess). This is how a console might be deemed “fraudulent,” providing justification for removing your listing.

Those multi-language Switch 2 consoles are going to be a hot commodity in Japan for a while.