2008 eBay Boycott: The Issues

"The most important thing of eBay is the human side." - Pierre Omidyar, eBay Founder (Oct 2000 Interview)

blue pin Class Action Lawsuit
— On 23 Apr 2007, a class action lawsuit was filed against eBay for "act[ing] through abusive methods to maintain its monopoly in the online auction market." Additional information may be found on the Hagens Berman LLP website.

blue pin "Fundamental Changes" Announcement
— eBay's "unveil[ing] of fundamental changes to fee structure, seller standards and feedback" on 29 Jan 2008 sparked the current 2008 multinational boycott. Read the company's official press release as well as its fee structure update and feedback changes announcements to understand why thousands of buyers and sellers have organized to oppose the Internet giant.
See also the transcript of eBay's 23 Jan 2008 conference call regarding its Q4 2007 earnings — courtesy of SeekingAlpha.com.
Additional information about the announced changes' (potential) impact on sellers may be found in the 6 Feb 2008 transcript of Deutsche Bank Securities' conference call with members of the Internet Merchants Association.

blue pin Manipulated Listing Counts
— Although buyers and sellers have long suspected eBay of manipulating the kinds and numbers of listings on its site, those suspicions have been sharpened since the 2008 boycott began on 18 Feb. In addition to holding listing sales that have created artificial spikes in seller traffic, eBay has apparently been featuring tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of "test" and otherwise ersatz listings like those captured in the following screenshots from 29 Feb 2008.

[screenshot 1] [screenshot 2] [screenshot 3] [screenshot 4] [screenshot 5]

The matter is made all the stranger because most, if not all, such listings seem to end and/or disappear shortly after public reports about them begin circulating online. The company has continually maintained that the listings' repeated (dis)appearances are the result of ongoing tests and/or glitches of one kind or another; the actual situation is difficult to determine and may well remain unexplained.

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blue pin eBay's Nation-building
— eBay maintains either partial or complete ownership of the following companies:

- Afterbuy.com
- Alando.de - now eBay Germany
- Auction.co.kr (Internet Auction Co.)
- Baazee.com - now eBay India
- CARad.com
- Craigslist.org
- Deja.com - Precision Buying service only
- EachNet.com
- Gittigidiyor.com
- Gumtree.com
- Half.com
- iBazar.com
- Kijiji.com
- Lokau.com.br
- Loquo.com
- Marktplatts.nl
- Meetup.com
- MercadoLibre.com
- Opus Forum
- PayPal
- ProStores, Inc.
- Rent.com
- Shopping.com
- Skype
- StubHub.com
- StumbleUpon.com
- Tradera AB
- Up4Sale.com (Jump, Inc.)

— eBay (or one of its subsidiaries) has had or currently has partnerships or other financial arrangements with the following organizations and companies:

- 20th Century Fox
- AfiliNet
- Alibris
- Altura
- AOL
- Baidu
- BBDO Advertising/OMD Media Agencies
- ChannelAdvisor - in conjunction with Tier 1 Asset Management
- Creative Artist Agency
- Domino's Pizza
- ELance
- FilmLoop
- FreeFlow
- General Motors Corp.
- Getting Free, Living Free Ministries - PDF web capture
- Google
- Harpo Productions (Oprah Winfrey) - Skype only
- JotSpot
- Kaboodle
- LiveWorld
- Mercedes-Benz
- MissionFish
- Mozilla Corp.
- MySpace.com - ongoing talks only
- NetSuite
- PruHealth
- Sanook
- Sears, Roebuck & Co.
- Tier 1 Asset Management
- Toyota
- TradeDoubler
- U.S. Postal Service
- ValueClick, Inc.
- Visa
- VTPRODUCTS
- Yahoo!

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*Last updated 17 Mar 2008*