Results tagged “petition” 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.