OT- Price Fixing Begins on Ebay

Wow this is going to be intresting, seems like its going to get harder to find bargians on ebay now that manufactures are shutting down ebay auctions because thier products are being sold to cheaply. Imagine Kennametal shutting down every auction because the prices are to low. Surplus dealers and resellers are going to take big hit on sales if this becomes wide spread.

Companies Claim Right to Interfere with eBay Auctions for Charging Too Little

The second case is Colon v. Innovate! Technology, Inc., No. 07-21349 (S.D. Fla.). Innovate! Technology ("ITI") is a company that makes high-performance car parts. According to its brief in the district court (warning, large file), the company "sells its products only via authorized distributors and retailers" that "comply with ITI's policy of Minimum Advertised Pricing."

Osvaldo Izquierdo Colon is an eBay seller who purchases ITI's car parts from an authorized wholesaler and resells them on eBay at a discount. When ITI found out about Colon's sales, it invoked eBay's VeRO program (an implementation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act) to terminate Colon's auctions. According to its notice of claimed infringement, ITI claimed a good faith belief that by selling its products on eBay without its permission, Colon was violating the company's intellectual property rights. Pursuant to eBay's policies, ITI's claim of infringement led to automatic termination of Colon's auctions and also put him at risk of losing his eBay account (and thus his livelihood) altogether.

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Best Regards Tom.

Reply to
azotic
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Yeah, what they want to do is make it impossible for anybody but an authorized dealer to EVER sell anything they make. Go to the auto parts store and buy the wrong muffler for your car - oops, well I'll just sell it on eBay - not any more you can't! You're just stuck with it, you can't even GIVE it away.

The final state of this is where the car you pay $30,000 to Ford (name your make here) is not actually yours, and when you are tired of it, you have to GIVE it back to the maker, and pay them a "termination fee" to crush it and salvage the materials from it. Large computer makers and Xerox tried this as a business model, and it worked fine until the US government started using a lot of computers and copiers. Suddenly, the practice of only leasing your products became illegal.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson

IMHO, and after being an ebay power seller for a couple of years, it has come full circle. To the guy who has a DeWalt charger, but no battery and wants to sell it. Or some other such one of a kind thing that costs $25 for a newspaper ad, but won't sell for $20.

I buy things on ebay now and again for convenience and price, but it's about six things a year. Down from 1,500 transactions a year. It was a good ride while it lasted. Now you have to really search, and there's lots of savvy buyers and snipers to compete with.

I'd like to see some competition that would just keep it to personal items and not let the big dogs in. But that wouldn't be PC, would it?

Steve

Reply to
SteveB

Your idea does not fit the wall street model of free trade. Peer to peer sales cuts out all those middle men and thier lawyers.

Best Regards Tom.

Reply to
azotic

Betcha babbin is still on ebay.

Best Regards Tom.

Reply to
azotic

That's not my experience. I've notified ebay several times (probably half a dozen times) of items that are either copied from some other part of the world, or are obvious scams and in all cases they have pulled the adverts. OK they give automated replies, but they've taken action.

AWEM

Reply to
Andrew Mawson

It's a real pisser. You can notify ebay of things they SHOULD be watching, about scummy sellers, about lots of things, and they don't do squat. All you get is an automated e mail. Then, there are sellers who deliver, who have good feedback ratings, and who try to go by the book.

And it's those guys they go after.

Go figger.

Reply to
SteveB

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Sarky !

I can only say as I find - I've done best part of a thousand eBay transactions since March 2001, only one went pearshaped and paypal sorted it for me and got my money back. In every case of dodgy ads I've reported, every one has been pulled.

AWEM

Reply to
Andrew Mawson

I rest my case.

Steve

Reply to
SteveB

YES! Ebay is a great company that gets right to the bottom of every complaint and ferrets out every bad apple.

Steve

Reply to
SteveB

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