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Gallerist Feature Tackles Auction House (Hidden) Reserves and Transparency – Heritage Auctions Leading in This Regard with Publicly Disclosed Reserves

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Daniel Grant, writing for Gallerist, published an interesting article a few days ago about auction houses, reserves, and transparency (see “How Low Can You Go?: Should Auction Reserve Prices Be More Transparent?”).  In his feature, he talks about how in nearly all cases, auction houses do not openly disclose the reserve (the lowest amount for which an item will sell at auction), and provides a variety of differing perspectives on how this practice impacts their respective markets and its participants.  Of the auction houses specifically discussed in the article, only one – Heritage Auction – makes it known to the public what the reserve price is for every item that they offer for sale. [Read more…]

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Recent Court Rulings and Legal Actions Make Publishing Comments Via the Internet a Little Less Anonymous

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There have been a number of recent developments involving lawsuits and legal motions filed intended to reveal the authors of comments published on the Internet anonymously.  [Read more…]

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eBay Announces More “Progress”, Less Transparency

eBay has published an “Important Security Announcement”, which equates to more “progress” and less transparency.  The latest announced change will result in the privatization of bidders identities not only during bidding, but following the close of the auction. [Read more…]

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eBay’s “PayPal Only” Debate Framed: Anti-Competition vs. Anti-Consumer Protection

eBay has published a statement on its Australian auction site (ebay.com.au) and e-mailed those members with a policy update in response to the ACCC actions reported on last week. It appears that the debate has now been framed as “anti-competitive” by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, with eBay’s retort to the ACCC’s objection as one that “undermines online consumer protection”. eBay has delayed it’s previously announced plans by one month. [Read more…]

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Setback for “PayPal-only” eBay Policy in Australia

As reported last month (see “PayPal Only” eBay Developments In The News), eBay announced that, beginning mid-June, PayPal would be the only method of payment permitted on eBay transactions taking place in Australia. This move by eBay appears to have been setback by a notice filed by the ACCC. [Read more…]

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Google “Check-Out” Proxy War With eBay’s “PayPal-only” Policy?

Thanks to a tip from a reader of yesterday’s article (see “More eBay Policy Developments Regarding PayPal“), I looked a little more into the Google-related developments with eBay’s policy changes in Australia (see ““PayPal Only” eBay Developments In The News“).

This article on AuctionBytes – “Oops! Google Outed in Objection to eBay Oz Policy” – reports that one of their readers, in reviewing the file properties of an anonymous filing to the regulatory agency in Australia (currently reviewing the “PayPal-only” policy proposed by eBay), found that evidence suggests it was drafted by Google. [Read more…]