eBay Sellers Respond to Class Action Lawsuit

by: Ming the Merciless

An excellent start but the tip of the iceberg.

Ebay has abused sellers based on a highly, highly questionable SCOTUS ruling and literally compelled sellers in their auction monopoly venue to surrender MANY of our legal rights, has egregiously and consistently interfered with our businesses since 2007, has violated SEC regulations by issuing disinformation to pump up the price of their stock or conceal critical information to prevent their stock from decreasing, and violated more FTC regulations that you can shake a stick at.

Ebay violates federal and state laws by encouraging illegal shill bidding by removing all aspects of transparency that would enable users to detect same, and they are the largest venue in the world for stolen merchandise.

Undoubtedly these law firms have taken a look at ebay under a microscope and decided these issues have the great potential for victory.

If they didn't, they have fialed to exercise due diligence.

However, before anyone gets too excited, the vast majority if not all the seller initiated class actions against ebay have resulted in sealed settlements that have largely benefited the law firms and ebay NOT aggrieved sellers.

by: Ric

As this action moves through the courts, it will be interesting to see how the judiciary views eBay's user agreement clause which prohibits members from participating in a class action against the company unless they specifically notified eBay in writing prior to the deadline the company imposed.

If the litigant did not jump through the hoop, then eBay would likely move to have the suit dismissed. If a judge were to set aside eBay's no class action clause, then it could once again be open season on eBay and there could be no end to the number of suits filed for eBay's many seller enslaving policies.

by: NetWatch

Posted a link to this in my two Facebook groups and already have several members interested in joining this class action lawsuit against eBay...they know a User Agreement can't LEGALLY prevent them of their Consittutional rights...

by: laurengrace

I am sure all those sellers that opted out in writing were tossed in the trash.

by: Ming the Merciless

I believe ebay had a n affirmative responsibility to notify sellers like me who opted out that they received their letters.

Otherwise the entire letter or no letter becomes a moot and probably unenforceable point.

by: thehosst

How about the famous rolling reserve lawsuit? 450 million dollars on hold for years, no interest, no word? What ever happen to that?  

by: Philip Cohen

What about eBay's demonstrable aiding and abetting of shill bidding auction fraud on consumers?

Any chance of some email addresses for those lawyers?

by: Marie

What is a "rolling reserve" or did you mean a rolling blackouts?  Which is now part of the Users Agreement on Ebay.

It will be interesting to follow this lawsuit and see what happens.  Hopefully some good will come of it.  The unfortunate part it that lawsuits take so darn long.

by: imbloated

I believe the lawsuit has merit. Whether the lawyers are skilled to handle it seems doubtful from the article's info, however. I would like legislation to limit eBay's inserting itself into the relationship between buyer and seller, and to prevent ebay from censoring what we can tell buyers about how low detailed seller ratings cost them more in the long run..  

by: Ming the Merciless

Ina-

Please, please, please put that e filiate crime story up for comments.

by: kayhouston

i actually looked up the case and then tried to track down the plaintiff's email address,,i think i found  it, and i've emailed her and asked what sellers can do to join the case..i'll call he lawyers first thing tuesday morning.. however,, it's going to be a long road,, the intial case was filed back in 2012.. if i'm reading the case right.. and then ebay appeals and judge asks for more info etc etc.. and just now the case is allowed to go forward.... uggg.all the while ebay becomes more and more a strong armed autocrat enforces harsh and unfair policies to countless sellers that fall through the cracks.. ebay needs to stop trying to apply manufacturing principals of efficiency an success (sixth sigma) to a vastly differnt variable marketplace that doesn't have anything in common with a manufaturing! any business professor, any business student.. would recognize the nonsense of trying to use manufacturing principals to consumer marketplace with millions of variable transactions that can't be homoginized..uggg.

by: Rexford

User agreements.....sign this and give up your rights.  We'll take your money, but we might provide you with the service that you are paying for and we might not.  And you'll never know, because we won't provide you with any transparency.  We'll pick and choose who we want to do well on our venue.  We'll given those chosen few an unfair competitive advantage.

Is this really that different from organized crime?

by: sasikat9

Lots of claims of wrong doing but no proof.

by: cmabresch

They rolled out a new policy in March 2014 and it became retroactive to August 2013! Giving sellers defects that have caused sellers damages. Sellers that have too many defects can no longer get postal discounts and ebay also clearly stated seller would lose their placement in search queries. Ebay can take away discounts that they once offered for performance standards but to make them retroactive I believe is illegal.

by: quirkyantiques

I *jumped through all the hoops* and opted out in writing to both Ebay and Paypal. Not only that-i sent my opt outs in via registered mail recorded delivery/registered mail just in CASE I ever feel the need to sue Ebay or Paypal and either of them allege they didn't receive my opt outs....

by: Tornad0sRul

I doubt very much that anything will come of this class action lawsuit because our legal system is so corrupt, so crooked, so inept, and so untrustworthy. I am educated and experienced with the United State's legal system and I am afraid of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  I have personally seen judges rule against Constitutional rights and I have seen judges squash viable lawsuits without batting an eye, simply because they don't want to hear it and they have no bosses who will review or question their decisions.  Judges have absolutely no accountability, especially the appointed ones, and they easily silence people by unfairly ruling against them over and over again until they are financially and emotionally drained and cannot go any further and give up fighting.  It is the way of our legal system.  

Because the laws are so complex a judge knows that he/she can say anything that most lay people would never fully understand, and most lawyers do not want to upset a judge because they may not rule in their favor for future lawsuits.

Like politicians, judges are paid behind the scenes and often times their decisions correspond more with the money trail and less with the actual laws.  Finding loopholes is a lawyer's job and considering that all judges were once lawyers, judges too know how to find loopholes.  It's all about how a judge can manipulate the wording of laws to appear as they want them to.

Remember this; in order to become a judge you must first have been a successful lawyer, and in order to be a successful lawyer you must be very good at lying, cheating, and stealing.  Lawyers with morals and ethics go into teaching or public service because they cannot be successful in the "jungle" that is our court system without compromising their morals.

by: comet

@TORNADOSRUL--

You must not live in NY where judges do NOT have to be lawyers--or at least not all of them.  In our little town we had for many many years a rather picturesque "Judge"  who held the Bench for well over 30 years.  Recently a new "Judge"  was seated--I am not exactly sure how these things get decided---and the NEW guy is going back over old cases and  trying to get old judgements paid (OK except without warning you find you have no drivers license so can't get to work so can't get paid so can't pay the old fine--Catch-22 here)  

And the same guy is trying to find out other old case info and possibly RE-TRY them!  This is at a TOWN LEVEL but has repercussions.

Now--I don't have a real problem with fines that were legit being paid.  I DO wonder if there is a Statute of Limitations.  But to play Double Jeopardy on these things--not so much!

And the guy just wants to make a name for himself--I don;t think this is a sincere effort to impose Order On Cow Town!!

by: comet

I went and read the actual case citation that Ina posted.

IT does seem that these lawyers are not doing their jobs---there are THOUSANDS of people who SHOULD be telling their stories to these guys and backing them up with FACTS that they have been able to glean.  And this seems as if it has NOT been done.  

It's sad too because there IS such a wealth of actual damaged sellers out there that would be HAPPY to come forward and testify and bring evidence to bear.  

It looks like these are the corner lawyers from over the candy shop who you call to get your kid out of a speeding ticket not ones to take on the might of ebay.  

Anybody know any REAL lawyers?  

by: Tornad0sRul

Comet, you are referring to a Justice and they can't and don't handle lawsuits of this caliber.  Justices do not have to be lawyers. Many of these "justice" courts are in small towns and villages where none of the residents are lawyers. In the larger towns, the justices are almost always lawyers, and of course actual judges are always lawyers.  You will never find a Justice in an Appellate court or a Supreme Court.  Justices mostly handle misdemeanor and minor criminal cases.  This is an actual civil lawsuit and a judge must preside.

by: Tornad0sRul

There isn't a judge in this country who will open this floodgate and they can easily quiet everyone with the slamming of their gavel.