Results tagged “goods” from Birmingham Mail - Technobabble

Online auction site eBay has started a petition against what it claims are manufacturers trying to block their products being sold through it.

It's quite an interesting issue - it all seems to have started with a number of lawsuits in Europe about the sheer volume of counterfeit goods being sold there.

Various clothes and perfume manufacturers took umbrage at the hit in sales, and also worried about people buying inferior goods labelled as their own. They felt eBay wasn't doing much to stop it, and to be fair, it wasn't - after all the website trousered 10 per cent of each sale under £40 - stopping trade would just hit profits.

Anyway, eBay is now trying to take the moral high ground claiming it was built on a "simple idea": "that we could empower people by building a global trading platform where practically anyone could buy or sell practically anything.

"But that idea is now under threat from certain brand owners and manufacturers who are trying to turn back the clock and block the sale of their products on online marketplaces and other websites across the EU.

"Ultimately, what is at stake is the right of sellers to compete fairly in the wider online marketplace, and the right of buyers to be able to access the best possible deals from the widest possible selection of goods."

eBay claims that last year only 0.15% of listings last year were detected or reported as potentially counterfeit - although presumably the volume is so massive people don't bother reporting things. and eBay's business is so wide ranging, a high proportion of buisness isn't anything which could be fake in any case.

The website continues: "The real aim of these brands is to block the sale of all their products on our site - regardless of whether such items are new or second-hand, genuine or fake. It's not just luxury items that are affected, but also everyday items like children's toys, electronic equipment, lawnmowers and pushchairs. And if we want to prevent other brand owners from following suit, we need to act now.

I see online auction site eBay has come a cropper in France for allowing the sale of fake goods.

Readers will know that I have a slight bee in my bonnet over this well known internet giant, and in the past have railed at their indifference to all fraud and other illegal activities taking place there.

A simple search of well known fashion names shows hundreds upon hundreds of items - all allegedly 'bought new with tags'.

Of course only a very small proportion is real - an absolute scandal which eBay has been unwilling to tackle - after all every sale means money in the bank to them.

The sheer scale of the counterfeit goods operation on eBay means that they would see a massive hit in their profits, so they pay lip service to combating it, but in my opinion, in reality do little.

Now they've been fined, will anything change? Well, eBay's line has always been 'it's not our problem' saying they are simply a conduit for a sale and can't be held responsible.

Try reporting something dodgy and see where that gets you - a lot of automatically generated customer service emails - that's where!

So will anything change? Probably not, but it'll be interesting watching to see what happens. I'm also monitoring the situation with regards to the decision to ban negative seller feedback while raising their cut from auctions (not to mention insisting on people signing up to Paypal - in the interests of security you understand, not so eBay gets a cut from the auction selling price, and then from the payment too, oh no, perish the thought!).

We can only hope the profiteering, poor customer service and arrogance of eBay comes back to haunt it!

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