Per a report from the AFP, an Austrian court has found eBay to be guilty of negligence in a case about a buyer who used the auction site to purchase gold from an eBay “Power Seller” dealer, which he never received. The news organization reports that eBay was aware of the seller having a police record in Germany for fraud prior to the buyer’s transaction, yet advertised the dealer as a “Power Seller” on the site, and thus a trustworthy vendor, in spite of its knowledge as well as complaints from buyers about delivery issues.
The “Power Seller”, ML Agentur, has since gone bankrupt. The Austrian who made the purchase on eBay in September 2007 never received the ingots after making payment. Per the AFP report, the seller “ML Agentur reported monthly sales of more than 400,000 euros in 2007, of which eBay would have received a percentage“.
The article states, “eBay advertised the company as a “power seller”, a particularly trustworthy vendor according to the auction site’s own criteria, despite complaints, notably regarding its times of delivery” and “the court said the auction site had been aware of ML Agentur’s record before the gold bar transaction was made and was therefore guilty of negligence“.
The full article can be found at Yahoo News:
This past weekend, I published an article in reaction to a Q&A with Philip Weiss and his opinion that eBay does a “good job policing themselves” (see Editorial: Reaction To “What’s Hot In Hollywood Collectibles” Article By The Seattle Times), which includes links to other court cases brought against eBay for issues including complaints by luxury goods companies that eBay supports the sale of counterfeit goods as well as a recent story in which buyers were taken for millions of dollars in a fake golf goods scam using the auction site.
Past articles published by the Original Prop Blog related to other legal disputes and court proceedings can be found via the portal below:
Jason DeBord