‘Michael Malone filed an antitrust class-action lawsuit against eBay this week under the Sherman Act, alleging eBay "utilizes its nationwide monopoly of the on-line auction market to monopolize the available forms of payment that sellers can use on eBay." eBay controls which payment methods sellers may advertise in their listings, and this year, it eliminated buyer-protection for non-PayPal transactions. eBay owns the PayPal payment service.’
The article also references the old conflict between PayPal and eBay. Before eBay purchased PayPal, PayPal’s management team prepared an anti-trust lawsuit against eBay and threatened to pursue the action. Ultimately, PayPal did not file the anti-trust lawsuit, but it is ironic given the current lawsuit’s claims.
Very interesting stuff. We will have to keep an eye on how this develops.