Seagate opened an official storefront on eBay where it is selling factory-recertified hard drives, which come with a limited warranty. eBay has been tightening the rules around selling refurbished goods on its platform in recent years, making it tougher for those not authorized by brands.
Seagate said tens of millions of hard drives are being shredded yearly over concerns about data security. Shredding entails breaking down a hard drive into tiny pieces so that data cannot be recovered
Seagate sanitizes data with comprehensive erasure to its factory-recertified drives and said it extended the life of approximately 1.19 million hard drives and solid-state drives in fiscal year 2023. Its factory-recertified drives can now be purchased directly through ebay.com/str/stxrecerthdd, it announced on June 18, 2024.
In 2020, eBay restricted sellers to listing refurbished goods in one of two ways: “Seller refurbished” and “Certified refurbished,” and severely restricting who was allowed to use the certified condition. A year later, it began banning sellers from listing any refurbished goods in certain categories, such as the Cell Phones & Smartphones category. In those categories, sellers must either be vetted by eBay or sell their refurbs as “used,” making the items less appealing to shoppers.
“eBay has been tightening the rules around selling refurbished goods on its platform in recent years, making it tougher for those not authorized by brands.” – Which is illegal and “Restraint Of Free Trade” as per US law.
What are examples of restraints of trade?
Examples of restraint of trade include:
Creating a monopoly.
Coercing someone to cease their business.
Damaging a company’s reputation.
Forcing someone to change their business so it is no longer competitive.
Fixing prices to drive out a competitor.
Restraint of trade is covered federally by the Clayton Act, the Federal Trade Commission Act, and the Sherman Antitrust Act.
But lets NOT let a few laws get in the way of eBay making a profit.