Amber Listserv / Ebay greed stalled in Oz

[David Cross]

Hi Folks,
A further update on the eBay-Paypal move in Oz.
Hope this will kill the move.
Cheers
Dave in Oz
ACCC thwarts eBay PayPal plan

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".