Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 07 July 2008 20:34
Opinion and Analysis
Page 3 of 4
The following is the second page of a letter, reprinted with permission, being sent to all relevant Ministers across Australia, state, territory and Federal by a co-ordinated group of eBay sellers:
“While this notification was being considered by the ACCC eBay introduced the first stage of its plan. The ACCC released a draft report that found against eBay on all grounds and advised them that they would be rejecting their claim. A final meeting was held between interested parties and the ACCC.
“On the day that the final ACCC decision was to be handed down eBay withdrew its notification but announced that it would keep the first stage of its proposal, that all sellers MUST offer PayPal as an option.
“The behaviour of eBay since this last action has been designed to achieve the outcome that they were refused by using the site to make PayPal a defacto PayPal only payment method.
“To this end they have, as noted earlier, made the alternative payment methods as difficult as possible to access; deleted any seller's listings that state a preferred payment method other than PayPal; has refused to allow sellers to charge the buyer the fee that PayPal charges them (as the Reserve Bank has permitted with Credit Cards), has deleted items that are in any way critical of PayPal while at the same time telling the buyers that other methods, Bank Deposit, Money Orders, Credit Cards etc. are not safe.
“This compulsion by stealth is compounded by the onerous conditions that the user agreement that PayPal requires you to sign has led to buyers and sellers deserting the site in droves.
“PayPal reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to freeze your account (the implication of this is that you can’t access your money and can’t sell on eBay because you can’t offer PayPal.
The letter continues in full on page 4.
