ACCC’s “pre-decision conference” on eBay and Paypal on today!

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Monday, 30 June 2008

Page 1 of 2 ! At 1.30pm today, a pre-decision conference by the ACCC will hear the grievances of preregistered attendees unhappy at eBay’s plans to enforce Paypal payments at its Australian auction site, as eBay hopes for what would appear to be an unlikely reprieve. An ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) notice advises that today, 30th June 2008, is the day a pre-decision conference will take place on eBay’s plans to force buyers and sellers to use Paypal, as per a request received by the ACCC. The ACCC states that: “A pre-decision conference is a public meeting to which all parties that may have an interest regarding the notification are invited. Conferences are conducted informally, without the participation of legal or other professional advisers.” Unfortunately only those who have pre-registered by last Friday are eligible to attend the meeting which will start at 1.30pm at the Sydney Maritime Museum, with non pre-registered attendees likely to be denied entry. Those who are pre-registered have been asked to arrive by 1.15pm, with the conference to be chaired by ACCC Deputy Chair Louise Sylvan. Although unconfirmed, Google will likely turn up to the pre-conference after it was exposed as the anonymous submitter of a detailed document to the ACCC arguing against eBay’s Paypal plans. The ACCC’s draft notice advising it was likely to disallow eBay’s Paypal-only request makes for interesting reading. ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, said that: "The ACCC is concerned that the notified conduct will allow eBay to use its market power in the supply of online marketplaces to substantially lessen competition in the market in which PayPal operates. "PayPal currently competes with a range of other providers to supply online payment services to users of online marketplaces. If the notified conduct is allowed to go ahead, there will be no competition for the supply of such services to buyers and sellers using eBay. "Given eBay's position as Australia's leading online marketplace, the notified conduct will substantially reduce competition to supply online payment services to users of online marketplaces more generally.” Continued on page 2. << First page <   1 2 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

< Next story in category		Previous story in the category >

Visitors last 30 days Suscribers

904,266 13,751