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Aussie Reserve Bank Eyeing eBay's PayPal Policy
Bulldust writes "Regular readers will recollect the recent story that eBay is forcing Australian users over to PayPal or COD as the only forms of payment in June 2008: eBay Australia Makes PayPal Mandatory. It now appears that the Australian Reserve Bank will consider throwing its weight behind users, should the eBay policy be deemed to breach trade practice and competition laws."
No, Ebay and PayPal like to paint themselves as being in a position where they benefit from the regulations they find convenient, and they're exempt from the ones they find inconvenient.
PayPal regularly says they're not a bank and not subject to the rules on banking, and EBay routinely says "we're just a facilitator".
They seem to actually conduct their business as if they are exempt from such forms of regulation. This could be the first time someone has corrected them and pointed out that they aren't the ones that choose which regulations apply.
Cheers
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
"What's wrong with being content with a reasonable profit?"
The culture and economic system demand the greed, remember Ebay is public company owned by shareholders, whose sole purpose is growth of profits.
As for people. People want power, when people say they want to be "rich", it's not that they want to just be rich (10 million or so) they want as much wealth as possible. Being 'rich' is relative to the richest, what they mean is "I want to be among the richest".
in australia we have a legal principle: If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, eats like a duck, weighs roughly the same as a duck and most australians who've seen it all consider it to be a duck, its most likely duck and probably laws about ducks apply, even if said duck says its a fucking goose.
I hear that in Britain, if it weighs roughly the same as a duck, it's most likely a witch.