Revisiting the Ethics of Ebay
17th December 2006
eBay is now an entrenched part of our culture. We shake our heads at the exorbitant prices that some people are willing to pay for some products that are sold through that medium. For instance, recently, the craze of the PS3 limited release with prices reaching almost ten times the original retail prices for the units is well publicized.
Although it is convenience for shoppers as well as sellers, and there are many who are making comfortable living out of eBay retailing, I wonder if the ethical ramifications is worrying anyone. A while back, I was wondering if the eBay philosophy of the marketplace promoted sound ethical practices among (especially) the young and impressionable.
Recently, promoters of a widely popular Australian concert event Big Day Out tried to curtail ticket scalping by adding a condition of sale to their tickets to prevent on-selling of tickets for profit.
However, the legal beagles of eBay successfully challenged the actions of the concert promoters, arguing that the provision was misleading and deceptive.
Justice Rares agreed, saying Creative “did not have reasonable grounds to make the representation that every ticket resold for profit would be cancelled”.
He said eBay was entitled to a declaration and an injunction, but declined to make orders for corrective advertising, fearing it could encourage scalpers.
“The result at which I have arrived is unfortunate,” Justice Rares said.
He said Creative had intended the new condition to protect the market from “cynical exploitation by scalpers who created an artificial scarcity of tickets”.
“The scalpers … use sites such as eBay’s web pages to make large profits for themselves,” he said.
“EBay itself profits from this practice.”
Justice Rares said there were some cases where people sold their Big Day Out tickets online because they were unable to attend the festival.
But “the evidence suggests that most sales on eBay are by scalpers preying on the desire of music fans to attend an event which was sold out early to scalpers,” he said.
The parties are meeting to decide what action, if any, the court should take against Creative.
Browsing through the comments to the article on news.com.au, it appears that I am not the only one who is worried about this callous attitude towards marketplace ethics and the apparent disregard for fairness and value in business transactions that eBay seems to promote, which is the rule of the jungle should prevail in an apparently free marketplace.
Should it?
Am I still being just a worry wort?
January 18th, 2007 at 12:50 am
Hmm, yes it is worrying. I was having a discussion with a colleague just now who out and out refuses to use Ebay. His view was that they an obligation to police their network. It is ridiculously easy to rip people off/be ripped off. Ebay make money out of items whether they are stolen or not. It doesnt matter that the users are the ones breaking the law - if you facilitate the sale of stolen goods you ahould be guilty by proxy.
I would definatly feel safer if they made it harder to create an account, especially for sellers who deal in expensive items.
Tom
August 10th, 2008 at 2:23 am
Thanks to this article, it makes my life as seo easier!
September 7th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
People list the weirdest things on ebay.