ACCC To Decide Whether eBay Are Being Greedy Dicks With PayPal Only Payments
According to Australian IT:
Section 47 of the Act prohibits exclusive dealing which broadly
involves one trader imposing restrictions on another’s freedom to
choose with whom, in what or where it deals. In some cases, exclusive
dealing is prohibited outright and, in other cases, only where it
substantially lessens competition.
eBay doesn’t feel that restricting it’s customers to Paypal will substantially lessen competition. They stand by their claim that the move is done exclusively to protect customers.
The ACCC is now calling for submissions (including from you), as to whether the move should be considered anti-competitive.
From the comments to the original story, it’s obvious that a lot of eBay buyers aren’t fazed by this. And why would they be? Buyers will definitely benefit from the added protection Paypal offers, without any significant negative impact. However, it’s the sellers that suffer - they’re the ones who will have to pay twice over to eBay to sell their goods, whether they like it or not. Even if you only use Paypal already, as a buyer or seller, taking away the choice of payment options and leaving only an alternative that will make eBay more money has to be seen as inspired by greed.
So, if you find this whole situation morally corrupt, make sure you let the ACCC know. But you need to do it by May 2. Hopefully the ACCC will sort this whole situation out in a way that benefits consumers, not eBay shareholders.
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Comments
You know, one can still buy stuff via direct deposit and sell it. FOr example, if i purchased a camera for $2k in a few months time on ebay and the guy lives down the road, i will put the money directly into his account, and ebay cant stop me!
undertsandably if the guy jibs me and runs of to mexico in the 2 days it takes for funds to clear, its all my fault and ebay cant help me iether!
It would be easy for ebay to only allow cheque, direct deposit, money orders and other credit card payments to sellers who have been verified through paypal or other methods as well as having good feedback. This would provide the security that they are after.
This way they would not be breaking the trade practices Act.
It’s suprissing that such a big organisation hasn’t thought of such a simple solution!
“they’re the ones who will have to pay twice over to eBay to sell their goods”
You mean three times over. eBay charges an insertion fee when you first list the item, then takes a percentage of the final price once the item is sold. THEN they take a percentage from paypal.
I believe this move will affect BUYERS AS WELL. Sure we get more protection as buyers. But we will be slapped with the extra costs to cover the sellers.
As a seller, I will charge an extra amount, to the product I’m selling, to cover the fees associated with being a seller.
It’s what all businesses do. We have to maintain a profit percentage. Customers are charged accordingly to make this percentage.
Want to make ebay safer by using Paypal? Simply promote it!!! Leave the option of safety up to the customer and promote it.
Taking away the customer/seller’s choices are simply an act of greed and breaks the act … thus breaking law.
RISE UP AND FIGHT, PEOPLE!
I made my ACCC submission. I’ve had 62 out of 62 good transactions with direct deposit. It’s safe, quick and cheap. Oh, and before I buy a product, I check out the seller very carefully - this is why feedback ratings are provided. I don’t need paypal to play cop for me. Viva la revolution. Get your submissions into the ACCC - you will feel really good, and you will save Humanity at the same time.
If buyers are after the extra protection, I believe that they should be the ones to pay for it in the same way they have to pay the extra if they wish for the protection of Registered Post.
If this goes through, I may stay with eBay, but I’ll be scamming the system by mailing buyers and offering direct deposit and a lower postage fee to those who accept. If eBay ever catches on and shuts down my account, I’ll simply move on to oztion.com.au and I recommend all other sellers do the same.
Not selling or buying on ebay anymore. I dont sell as a business, so it is cheaper to have a garage sale or sell on alternate site.
This takes away the ‘bargian aspect of ebay- as sellers will be forced to pay more (paypal fees even on the post cost). Next we may as well put GST and ‘ebay tax’ on items.
Waiting to see if people leave in droves.
The ACCC I doubt will stop ebay.
eBay is laughing at all their Power Sellers because despite people disliking their changes all the Power Sellers are not moving away from eBay.
If your really looking for an alternative site, there are a few but they all need support.
One site for example is http://www.razorbid.com.au, it has NO LISTING FEE’s, a FIXED 1-3% FVF.
Again eBay will laugh until people properly “leave” for other sites.
Cheers
Jamie