The Government has offered Australia's three mobile operators, and vividwireless, renewal of their existing spectrum allocated on 15 year licences in the late 90s and early 2000s at set prices, while the Government expects to rake in $3 billion.
In fact, the ACCC has allowed eBay to implement the first
part of its PayPal program. From 21 May 2008, all sellers on eBay were
required to offer PayPal as one of their accepted payment methods.
That being the case, how can eBay maintain that
"the ACCC’s current view delays the opportunity to provide consumers a
more secure way to shop on eBay.com.au with confidence." Even if we
were to accept that PayPal is the only secure method to shop online
(and we don't), since all eBay sellers are now forced to offer PayPal
as an option for buyers how is the opportunity for a more secure way to
shop lessened?
Does eBay think Australian shoppers are knuckle-heads that need to be
forced to use PayPal for their own good? Not likely! Perhaps eBay
thinks all Australians are knuckle-heads that can be forced into using
a payments system that will put extra money into eBay's pockets with
each transaction? More likely!
Quite honestly, eBay appears to be its own worst enemy in this fiasco.
eBay has already admitted that it could never implement a PayPal only
program in the US - antitrust regulators would never stand for it. Yet
now that it has been told by Australia's own regulator that its PayPal
only plans are unacceptable, it intends to fight on.
eBay only has to read its own blogs and listen to the vast array of
powerful forces aligned against it in Australia (including the Reserve
Bank!) to realise how unpopular and futile its PayPal only plan is. Yet
eBay intends to risk destroying whatever goodwill it has left among the
Australian online shopping community and fight on.
No-one doubts that eBay has the biggest and best online auction site in
Australia by far. What a pity the company has allowed greed to sully
what is otherwise a great brand.
David Bass
| ComOps, a leading Australian provider of business software products and services, has won a competitive tender to deploy its Salvus safety, r…
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