Competition Act violation ?

[dipmicro]

I am not often on these forums, otherwise I would know this by now and I missed that little N/A in new Store and Fixed inventory pricing.

I believe eBay Canada employees monitor these forums and I would like to get an explanation regarding a new policy of below $1 items in fixed price and store inventory. If you don't know, please don't hesitate to ask legal dept. before answering:

... The Act prohibits encouraging an increase or discouraging a decrease in the price at which another person supplies or offers to supply a product within Canada ...

... The Act prohibits refusal to supply a product to a purchaser because of the purchaser’s low pricing policy. ... (I am purchaser of eBay service)

... The Act prohibits inducing a supplier, as a condition of doing business with such supplier, to refuse to supply product to a person or class of persons because of their low pricing policy. ...

Quotes from "Overview of Canadian antitrust law" by McCarthy Tétrault LLP

[whoscloset]

but isn't ebay just a "forum"?

[recped]

but isn't ebay just a "forum"?

Don't know about that but obviously eBay are not a "supplier" of goods in terms of the Competition Act. eBay is a supplier of services and they don't allow the resale of their services to anyone at any price.

By the way you will never get a Pink to respond to such a question.

[whoscloset]

eBay is a supplier of services and they don't allow the resale of their services to anyone at any price.


Ummmmm...okay...how exactly do you explain the "sponsored listings" at the bottom of search pages?

[weedsellit4u]

Interesting question, lawyers would be needed to get an answer.

[dipmicro]

By the way you will never get a Pink to respond to such a question.

Actually, I don't expect the customer service person to respond to my concern. It SHOULD be forwarded to legal dept.

eBay did not implement anything yet, it was just announced. and I am a nice person and giving them heads up before filing a complaint with Competition Bureau Canada, who IMHO has better resources and authority to review the situation than any of us. And plus I don't like filing complaints unless absolutely necessary, it's a lot of hassle and wasted time.

So let's give eBay lawyers some time to review Canadian anti-trust legislation and if I was right and saved eBay some headaches, a permanent discount on fees would be nice and appreciated 🙂

[numero_1]

i'm sure they got somewhere on the fine print something like:
we can change any rule of the site at any time at our own leisure
the $1 min rule doesn't bother me at all, now the 8% comission fee kinda does...

[dipmicro]

An update:

Nobody from eBay Canada provided an explanation.

The day the changes were introduced and $1 minimum seemed to be in effect, anti-trust complaint has been filed with the bureau.

Few days later a criminal investigator requested more information to start an investigation under section 61. (1) (b) of Competition Act.


-


to eBay Canada: I can provide the name and phone number of the investigator to eBay employee or agent upon request. Btw. I have no wish for this investigation to end in court, the concern has been communicated to eBay well in advance, and I am just doing what needs to be done.

[whatnerds]

I dont even know why bring this up when I can answer this question with a easy reply,

Scream and shout all you like, Ebay does not care about you or me, or any of us, we can be replaced, a pink can read this and agree with that its true! Thanks.

Sukh
(Dream About Comics)

[for_baby_and_you]

why I'm not surprised that they didn't reply???? sure they are monitoring this forums... they were so quick to close all the treads about the strike last week 😞 but to get some answers from them.... no they just do copy and paste, copy and paste, copy and paste ...

[dipmicro]

Final update:

Competition Buerau Canada will not build a criminal case around this, apparently it's too small and too hard to prove an intent in criminal court.

He said that "if eBay came to you and asked you to increase the prices", that would make for a better case.

They advised if I had money to find a group of people and file a "class action". He thinks this might be a good case and told me to get a lawyer and few other people.

Well, I personally don't care enough to go beyond the complaint on this one. If anybody does, good luck.

Cheers

[jakeeangel]

Well, duh! Lawyers will do anything for you if you give them enough money. It doesn't mean you'll win, it just means they'll take your case because you gave them a retainer. Total waste of time!

---

When you find doing what's right hard to do - you've got a problem.