ACCC不允许ebay强制用户使用paypal，ebay要上诉

黑山老妖

ACCC thwarts eBay PayPal plan

Stephen Hutcheon
June 12, 2008 - 4:59PM

The competition watchdog has flagged its intention to scuttle a plan by online auctioneer eBay to force its Australian users on to a PayPal-only payments system.

Citing concerns about the "anti-competitive effect" of the proposal, the chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Graeme Samuel, has issued a statement calling on eBay to delay implementation of the plan, which was supposed to take effect from next Tuesday.

eBay's proposal would have required items bought and sold on the site to be paid for using PayPal, which eBay owns.

Although cash on delivery or pick-up would still be acceptable, direct bank deposits, cheques and money orders would all be barred.

The move would have lumbered sellers with extra costs as PayPal charges a fee to accept payments via the service. This would be in addition to auction charges.

Many eBay users are unhappy about the proposal and have been venting their opposition to the move on the eBay discussion boards.

In addition, the ACCC has received a number of objections to the proposal from rivals, other providers of payment services, merchants and users.

eBay, which claims to have more than 5 million registered customers in Australia, argues that acceptance of the plan would diminish the incidence of fraud.

"The ACCC is concerned that the [PayPal proposal] will allow eBay to use its market power in the supply of online market places to substantially lessen competition in the market in which PayPal operates," Mr Samuel said in the statement.

"Given eBay's position as Australia's leading online market place, the [PayPal proposal] will substantially reduce competition to supply online payment services to users of online market places more generally."

The ACCC has issued a draft notice proposing to revoke eBay's request for immunity from prosecution, which the company lodged in April.

Interested parties can now submit responses to the ACCC's draft notice before the commission issues a final ruling.

In his statement, Mr Samuel said the ACCC acknowledged that there were, in some circumstances, benefits to the PayPal-only plan.

However, he said the ACCC believed that consumers were best placed to choose the most suitable payments system.

"The [PayPal proposal] denies them that choice. Accordingly, the ACCC considers that these benefits do not outweigh the anti-competitive effects of the conduct," Mr Samuel said.

eBay has issued a statement saying it would be "assessing the ACCC draft notice and will make further comment following the review process".

黑山老妖

eBay to fight ACCC PayPal ruling

Stephen Hutcheon
June 13, 2008 - 4:16PM

Online auctioneer eBay says it will challenge the Australian competition watchdog's ruling to block a plan to force its users onto a PayPal-only payments system.

In a statement issued this afternoon, eBay said it was "disappointed" with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission decision.

"There will be a period of negotiation, but what happens next, I couldn't speculate," an eBay spokeswoman told smh.com.au."We're not ruling out anything at the moment."

The company said it would delay plans to roll out the PayPal-only policy until July 15. Before the ACC stepped in, the new policy was due to come into effect next week.

Citing the "anti-competitive effect" of the proposal, the ACCC yesterday issued a draft ruling blocking it and called on eBay to postpone the roll out.

Althought the ACCC's final decision is still pending, it is unusual for draft rulings to be reversed once they have been issued.

eBay's proposal would have required items bought and sold on the site to be paid for using PayPal, which eBay owns.

Although cash on delivery or pick-up would still be acceptable, most other payment methods would all be barred.

The move would have imposed extra costs on sellers as PayPal charges a fee to accept payments via the service. This would be in addition to auction charges.

eBay, which claims to have more than five million registered customers in Australia, argues that PayPal "significantly enhances protection" for buyers and sellers from fraud.

"eBay believes the consumer benefits of this initiative are worth fighting for on behalf of its buyers which will ultimately benefit sellers," the statement said.

The PayPal-only plan is an initiative of eBay's Australian branch office. If successful, it may have been adopted by eBay in other countries.

"Other markets will look very closely at this to see how it works out," the spokeswoman said.

The Trading Post, one of eBay competitors, has weighed in to the debate, saying eBay's decision to contest the ACCC's ruling shows it is "blatantly disregarding the needs" of its local buyers and sellers.

The Trading Post, the print and online classifieds business that is owned by Telstra's Sensis arm, launched its own online auction site last month.

"Australians should be questioning whether eBay is really looking after their best interests," said Sensis Classifieds's general manager, Stephen Hughes, in a statement.

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