In a bid to thwart resellers who are selling the Pixel and Pixel XL at a premium, Google has started suspending accounts of such people. Due to supply issues and high demand, Google has been unable to keep up with the demand for the Pixels in the United States and other key markets. Taking advantage of this, many people were buying the Pixel and then reselling them at higher prices. 

Other resellers were making people buy the Pixel for them and then sell them at higher prices to other customers. These people were buying the Pixel either through Google Store or Project Fi store. Since this is against Google’s terms and conditions, the company has now started suspending accounts of such resellers. The report from Guardian suggests that Google has up until now suspended more than 200 such accounts that were created for the sole purpose of purchasing Pixels and then selling them at a higher price.

With a suspended Google account, affected consumers will not be able to access their emails, photos, documents stored on Google Drive, and more. Considering how popular Google services are and how widely they are used, Google suspending accounts of Pixel resellers can really affect their work and life.

There has been some unintended casualty as well, with accounts of some genuine buyers being suspended as well. Thankfully, Google has been restoring such accounts when contacted by these buyers.

Google has also issued an official statement to Android Authority:

We identified a scheme in which consumers were asked to purchase Pixel devices on behalf of a reseller, who then marked-up the cost of those devices in order to resell them to other customers. We prohibit the commercial resale of devices purchased through Project Fi or the Google Store so everyone has an equal opportunity to purchase devices at a fair price. Many of the accounts suspended were created for the sole purpose of this scheme. After investigating the situation, we are restoring access to genuine accounts for customers who are locked out of many Google services they rely on.

What do you think about Google’s move on suspending accounts on Pixel resellers? Has your account also been suspended by Google?