Not A Smooth Move eBay in Australia!

Do you know that Chinese curse that goes "May you live in interesting times..."? There are certainly 'interesting times' for eBay in Australia.

Once in a while I do love to say "I told you so", so juvenile and so infinitely satisfying! When this whole PayPal Only in Australia debacle started I said that Australia may be a country with a small population but that Australians are a tough people and do not take kindly to being pushed around.

Hoo boy!

I am so glad I am on the side of light. I can't imagine anything closer to Hell than having a bunch of Aussies with blood in their eyes after me. eBay may think that they have gotten what they wanted. In reality what they have is the first stages of an unholy nightmare.

Australian sellers made a record breaking number of submissions to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in the matter of eBay's request for a waiver from the Trade Practices Act 1974. After a lot of bluster eBay withdrew their application. First round to the sellers I believe.

Many Australian sellers believe Stage one was merely a smokescreen for Ebay to sidestep themselves into the position they wanted in the first place. Mandatory PayPal on every listing, mysterious glitches to lower alternative methods of payments visibility and penalties for any seller who expresses a preference in payment methods. Ask for the moon and settle for a handful of stars.


Not content with their round one victory Australian sellers are now carrying the fight to eBay.

No more hiding behind "we are just a venue" whenever the going gets tough. If eBay thought that Australia was a soft target for sweeping global change we are determined to prove to a watching world just how wrong eBay is.

Their goals:
1. PayPal will not be a mandated option,
2. eBay/PayPal will have to become a party to the EFT code of conduct, and,
3. both will be obliged to respect all of the consumer laws of the country.

Letters are being written to The Hon Chris Bowen MP, Minister for Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs, and individual Members of Parliament as well as the various Ministers for Consumer Affairs, Fair Trading, Attorneys-General, Justice and Workplace relations in all states and territories of Australia including at the Federal level.

Many US sellers feel that eBay has declared war on the small seller. Australian sellers appear to have declared war on eBay. I hope Simon Smith has a tin hat.

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PayPal Nightmare Read Your Agreement

This video is over a year old but it is just as pertinent now as it was then. This will be included in my submission to the ACCC. That fight is not over yet.

There are a lot of changes to the PayPal User Agreement and they are not in your favor.

Check back later this evening for my take on PayPal's take.





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ACCC Just Doesn't Understand eBay

eBay has released a media statement regarding the ACCC’s draft notice. All the right 'button' words are present, poor Usher must have been up all night polishing. I am not sure what is meant by

eBay intends to work with the ACCC

It sounds sinister. Perhaps we should have a whip round to get tin hats for all the commissioners just to be on the safe side.

The statement reads as follows:


ACCC draft notice undermines online consumer protection
eBay will continue to fight for safety benefits for consumers

eBay challenges yesterday’s Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) draft notice and is disappointed that the ACCC’s current view delays the opportunity to provide consumers a more secure way to shop on eBay.com.au with confidence.

eBay intends to work with the ACCC and hopes to achieve a final outcome which has the safety and security of eBay’s members as its paramount objective. eBay will delay the removal of other payment methods from the site until Tuesday 15 July.

PayPal offers consumers a range of payment choices, including bank transfer and credit cards. It’s a safer and easier online payment system that significantly enhances protection for eBay buyers and sellers.

eBay is pleased to confirm that PayPal buyer protection will jump to $20,000 on eBay.com.au for purchases paid for using PayPal from Tuesday 17 June.

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


What does this mean for you?

PayPal Buyer Protection will still increase to $20,000 on 17 June 2008.

From 15 July 2008, the only payment methods sellers may offer on eBay.com.au will be PayPal and pay on pick up.

Selling on eBay.com.au
Current policies regarding accepted payment methods do still apply. This means PayPal is required on all listings on eBay.com.au. Other payment methods (i.e. bank deposit, cheque/money order) may also be offered until 15 July 2008.

As previously communicated any listings that do not comply with eBay’s Accepted Payments Policy will be removed.

There are a small number of categories excluded from these changes. Learn more about these exclusions.

Buying on eBay.com.au
To ensure you benefit from PayPal’s Buyer Protection Policy, eBay strongly recommends you use PayPal when paying for your purchases on eBay.com.au.

From 15 July 2008 the available payment methods will be limited to PayPal, Visa/MasterCard, or pay on pick up.

Please note that some of our onsite communications will still refer to changes taking place on 17 June 2008.
These communications are being updated and should reflect the new date of 15 July 2008 within the coming days.

Regards

The eBay team

Talk about lay it on with a trowel. Have a nice juicy raspberry eBay.


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NO! To PayPal Only in Australia!

With just a few words, well, 42 pages actually, the ACCC has denied eBay's proposed PayPal Only in Australia Plan.

The ACCC considers that the notified conduct has, or is likely to have, the effect of substantially lessening competition in the market in which PayPal operates. The ACCC also considers that the notified conduct is likely to result in reduced choice for consumers, higher transactions costs and reduced innovation in online payment systems.

Therefore, the ACCC concludes that the substantial anti-competitive detriments outweigh any public benefits resulting from the notified conduct.

For the reasons identified above the ACCC considers that the notified conduct has the purpose, effect or likely effect of substantially lessening competition and the benefits do not outweigh the detriments.

Accordingly, the ACCC proposes to issue a notice to revoke notification N93365 lodged by eBay International A.G. on 11 April 2008.

Shot down in Flames!

Don't MESS with Aussies eBay.




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Update: The photo is from the 1990 inundation of the village of Kalapana on the Big Island of Hawaii. Ua mau i ka mâlie o Kalapana

Woohoo I won!

On Tuesday Ina Steiner over at Auctionbytes Blog posted on a Mysterious ACCC Filing in the eBay PayPal Only for Australia Waiver application. Ina has a way of making things fun and she invited readers to play 'whodunit" in the comments. My comment was #11.
Today's update will be of interest to my readers.

Lets hear a round of applause for Master Detective David Bromage!

I was going to post an exhaustive analysis of this excellent document,
but,
that is going to have to wait until it comes back, if it does.




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BaySpeak on PayPal in the Land of OZ

I HOPE the ACCC is a lot smarter than eBay and Paypal's lawyers in Australia think they are! Reading their final submission on their application for a waiver to certain provisions of the Trade Practice Act 1974, produces as fine an example of BaySpeak, half truths, diversions and plain prevarication as I have ever seen, and I have seen a lot.

Half Truth:

excluding Google Checkout, which, contrary to BPAY's submission, does not operate in Australia

Actually, Google Checkout does operate in Australia. Google Checkout is available to buyers in Australia. Google says "We're working towards making Google Checkout more widely available in the near future. At this time, however, we cannot provide any details regarding when Google Checkout will be available in specific countries." Therefore eBay's statement is half true, the system is not available to Australian Sellers.

eBay loves it's sellers!

It is not possible for eBay to achieve the stated objective of significantly reducing "bad buyer experiences" for all eBay users without mandating the use of PayPal ... One likely contributing cause for this is that a number of negative incidents are caused by fraudulent or otherwise dishonest sellers. Such sellers are unlikely to accept PayPal payments because of the security and fraud protection measures available to PayPal users on eBay and, in particular, the ability of PayPal to reverse payments and freeze accounts. It follows that any increased usage of PayPal can be expected to reduce the total number of such incidents.

eBay considers that many of the submissions contain factual errors or distortions and the ACCC may be assisted by eBay clarifying those errors. Accordingly, eBay has identified a number of the most frequently asserted factual errors issues and addresses these issues below.

Just a few:

PayPal is not subject to the same level of regulation as banks.
While not subject to the same regime as banks, PayPal is subject to comprehensive regulatory oversight by government agencies. It is the holder of Australian Financial Services Licence No. 304962 and a banking license. It is subject to regulation by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission and the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority. PayPal is also subject to the Australian Anti-Money
Laundering, Counter-Terrorism Financing and various other Australian and foreign laws.
Translation: well no it is not, but we can cite a whole heap of regs we are subject to

As a result of the Project, PayPal will become a monopoly provider of payments services for eBay transactions.
This is factually incorrect. PayPal will not become the only provider on eBay - EFT and CC will continue in use, the only difference being the imposition of PP as the intermediary to process transactions. PayPal will continue to pay the credit card merchant fees that would otherwise be imposed on sellers
Translation: No no, not a monopoly, we will just be the only payment method and we are telling you how we pay all fees for something most sellers do not use, without mentioning that we will charge the sellers even higher fees for something they get very inexpensively if not free from their banks.

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