CyberLaw Blog

Archive for the ‘EBay’ Category

eBay shill bid scammer convicted:

Minibus man falls foul of consumer protection laws

Paul Barrett, a minibus hire firm boss from Stanley, County Durham, has been convicted of bidding against items he was selling on eBay in order to drive up final prices.…

(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

EBay fined by Paris court over sales of authentic perfumes: “A French court has told internet auction site eBay that it cannot allow sales of luxury goods without the brand owner’s permission. EBay has been fined €1.7 million for not stopping the sales of perfumes.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

eBay could ditch uncrackable Skype tech

Spooks likely watching with interest

Skype’s proprietary scrambling technology is purportedly the bane of electronic spies at the NSA and GCHQ, and now in a move sure to spark conspiracy theories, eBay has quietly revealed it could rip out and replace the code at its core.…

(Via The Register – Comms.)

eBay not liable for L’Oreal fakes sold in UK: “Ebay won another important legal victory this morning when the High Court
ruled the internet auction group is not legally accountable for the sale of
counterfeit L’Oreal cosmetics on its UK website.”

(Via Law News from Times Online.)

Internet auction fraudster jailed: “A man who conned eBay customers of £23,500 worth of goods they did not receive is jailed for two years.”

(Via BBC News.)

eBay buyer faces libel action after leaving negative feedback

From Times Online, October 24, 2008 (Kaya Burgess)

A man is facing legal action for libel after leaving negative feedback for an item he bought on auction website eBay.

The negative feedback at the centre of the dispute

When Chris Read received the £155 mobile phone he had purchased from Joel Jones on eBay, he found it was the wrong model and was not in good condition, as advertised.

The 42-year-old mechanic from Kent returned the phone, and, on October 3, used the feedback facility on the website, designed to warn other buyers of potentially untrustworthy sellers. He wrote: “Item was scratched, chipped and not the model advertised on Mr Jones’s eBay account.”
(more…)

Man sued for libel over comments on eBay – Telegraph

A man is being threatened with a libel action after posting critical comments on the internet about an eBay user who sold him a mobile phone.

By Jon Swaine, Last Updated: 6:14PM BST 23 Oct 2008″

Chris Read used the auction website’s feedback facility to claim that the device he was sold by Joel Jones, a 26-year-old businessman from Suffolk, did not live up to its billing.
(more…)

PayPal to refund shoppers defrauded on eBay – Times Online

See also Online shoppers: ‘Buying isn’t entirely safe’

From The Times, October 4, 2008

Rebecca O’Connor

PayPal, the payment service used by 20 million online shoppers in Britain, has given in to consumer demands to offer full refunds to buyers defrauded on eBay.

Previously, anyone using PayPal to buy items such as a laptop or furniture risked losing hundreds of pounds on something that might not work or even arrive.

Consumers who buy an item worth more than £150 using PayPal on eBay will now have protection.

The decision to remove the present limits comes after years of pressure from PayPal users, who make up more than half of all UK eBay members. They felt that the previous limits were unfair and made eBay shopping less safe than buying on the high street.

(more…)

Ebay wins court victory against Tiffany & Co: “Ebay, the internet auction site, has won a significant battle in the war over
the sale of luxury goods on its site.”

(Via Law News from Times Online.)

Court Clears eBay in Sale of Counterfeit Items: “Ruling against the jeweler Tiffany, a judge said eBay does not have to actively filter counterfeit items from its site

(Via NYT > Technology.)