Ebay sues Amazon over 'orchestrated campaign to poach sellers'

[brabha_9]

Online marketplace eBay has filed a US lawsuit against Amazon, claiming the retail giant used its internal messaging system to poach sellers.

The lawsuit alleges that Amazon representatives signed up for eBay accounts and sent messages to persuade users to sell their goods on Amazon, which eBay said violated its user agreement.

Ebay  described it as an "orchestrated, coordinated, worldwide campaign" to "illegally lure eBay sellers to sell on Amazon".

The legal complaint says that Amazon representatives asked eBay sellers to talk on the phone to avoid detection.

Ebay says it wants to stop Amazon misusing its messaging platform and to pay it an unspecified sum.

Amazon declined to comment.

Ebay first made public its complaint earlier this month that it had uncovered "a unlawful and troubling scheme on the part of Amazon to solicit eBay sellers to move to Amazon's platform" and demanded that it ended the activity.

Seattle-based Amazon said at the time that it was conducting a thorough investigation.

Both companies rely on independent sellers to boost their revenue.

Last year, for the first time more than half the items sold on Amazon were from third party sellers.

https://uk.movies.yahoo.com/movies/ebay-sues-amazon-over-orchestrated-063800538.html

Well that is something I thought I would never see. Can't say I have got that, but I have got the occasional buyer who says. "Please text me at XXX-xxx-XXXX so I can complete the payment."

[valueaddedresource]

Very old news...date on that article is October 2018.

[lacemaker3]

That article was from 6 years ago, it was posted on 18 October 2018. It might be good to find out what happened with that lawsuit, and give us an update.

[joels-retrocade]

Well eBay can always lure them back by improving the site, lowering fees or actually advertising the site.  Sellers and buyers have been leaving the platform for many years now (since 2018).  It's gotten so bad that they stopped publishing the number of buyers and sellers.  Not a good sign lol.  Their profits have remained fairly stable though because they keep leeching more and more from the sellers that remain further exacerbating the problem.

[luckythewinner]

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It's gotten so bad that they stopped publishing the number of buyers and sellers. 

That is simply not true.

eBay publishes the number of active buyers and active sellers in every quarterly report to the SEC and they are widely reported in the media.

And because it is an SEC filing, not only are they reporting them but they are attesting to the accuracy of the numbers.

Q4 2023 report:

https://investors.ebayinc.com/investor-news/press-release-details/2024/eBay-Inc.-Reports-Fourth-Quar...

[valueaddedresource]

@luckythewinner that's not exactly true either - eBay does report Active Buyers on quarterly reports but they have not reported Active Sellers since Q 4 2021, at which point it was at 17M.

Historically eBay has not always reported Active Sellers either, it was something they mostly started doing during the pandemic and then when the number started to drop again in 2021, they stopped reporting it.

There are several sites you might find on the internet claiming to have more recent active seller stats but they are likely estimating or extrapolating...or just making things up. 😂 If you go directly to the source and view quarterly reports on eBay's site like the one you linked to, you will not find Active Sellers mentioned after Q4 2021.

[toysaver]

Years ago I got an email from somebody telling me they wanted to help transfer my listings onto Amazon.  They had some sort of special software.  I assume it was through eBay messages but so long ago I don't remember more specifics.  I just ignored it.