[Ecommerce] eBay Accused of Price Gouging Scheme

[Jeff Williams]

All,

  Say it ain't so Joe...

eBay is being sued in a Calilfornia court for a practice that the
plaintiff, Glenn Block of Pennsylvania, claims artificially raises
the amount of a bid. The practice combines the warning emails
that eBay sends out when you are the highest bidder and your
bid is at your maximum, with the bid increment mechanism. It
seems that if your original maximum bid settnig prevents your
current bid from falling on an increment then your current bid
will be raised to the next increment as soon as you raise your
maximum. If the plaintiff wins this class action suit could cost
eBay tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.

See:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=7719196

Regards,
--
Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 134k members/stakeholders strong!)
"Be precise in the use of words and expect precision from others" -
    Pierre Abelard

"If the probability be called P; the injury, L; and the burden, B;
liability depends upon whether B is less than L multiplied by
P: i.e., whether B is less than PL."
United States v. Carroll Towing  (159 F.2d 169 [2d Cir. 1947]
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