eBay is not the seller of the product nor involved in the sale(2), nor an auction service(1), and therefore have no right to demand that businesses accept payment in chickens or paypal.
eBay could not overtly attempt the Australian "project" in the USA due to federal antitrust laws (the so-called "market conditions" referred to in eBay press statements). However, they are getting there through the back door by banning the viable competitors, banning direct communications between parties to the transaction, intercepting communications which include links to alternate pay sites, including "paypal is prefered" in the sellers' ads, banning other checkout systems, and other incremental measures.
(1)"You acknowledge that we are not a traditional auctioneer."
(2)"No agency, partnership, joint venture, employee-employer or franchiser-franchisee relationship is intended or created by this Agreement."
Exactly. The heart of this suit was about protecting the companies from counterfeits - everything else flowed from there.
eBay offered as their main defense that they were unqualified to determine whether any given handbag was a fake, and that they had no obligation to do so. The court disagreed with the latter. eBay does have an obligation under French law according to this decision.
So the second part makes a kind of sense even to those of us accustomed to First Sale Doctrine protection. If eBay cannot comply with their legal requirements when selling these things, then eBay cannot legally sell them. (The phrasing is deliberate, since the Court seems to acknowledge that eBay is indeed party to the sale).
The question of whether eBay did cooperate, or did enough to cooperate, was examined. eBay believed that their VERO program, requiring the French companies to monitor every listing, was sufficient cooperation. LVMH said it far too expensive when they attempted this, and ultimately proved impossible. According to them, suing was not merely the easiest way to obtain a more cooperative eBay, but the only way.
Slashdot Mirror
eBay is not the seller of the product nor involved in the sale(2), nor an auction service(1), and therefore have no right to demand that businesses accept payment in chickens or paypal.
eBay could not overtly attempt the Australian "project" in the USA due to federal antitrust laws (the so-called "market conditions" referred to in eBay press statements). However, they are getting there through the back door by banning the viable competitors, banning direct communications between parties to the transaction, intercepting communications which include links to alternate pay sites, including "paypal is prefered" in the sellers' ads, banning other checkout systems, and other incremental measures.
(1)"You acknowledge that we are not a traditional auctioneer."
(2)"No agency, partnership, joint venture, employee-employer or franchiser-franchisee relationship is intended or created by this Agreement."
both from the User Agreement http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/user-agreement.html?_trksid=m40
Exactly. The heart of this suit was about protecting the companies from counterfeits - everything else flowed from there. eBay offered as their main defense that they were unqualified to determine whether any given handbag was a fake, and that they had no obligation to do so. The court disagreed with the latter. eBay does have an obligation under French law according to this decision. So the second part makes a kind of sense even to those of us accustomed to First Sale Doctrine protection. If eBay cannot comply with their legal requirements when selling these things, then eBay cannot legally sell them. (The phrasing is deliberate, since the Court seems to acknowledge that eBay is indeed party to the sale). The question of whether eBay did cooperate, or did enough to cooperate, was examined. eBay believed that their VERO program, requiring the French companies to monitor every listing, was sufficient cooperation. LVMH said it far too expensive when they attempted this, and ultimately proved impossible. According to them, suing was not merely the easiest way to obtain a more cooperative eBay, but the only way.