Wednesday, June 25th, 2008

eBay Launches “Call for Action” Campaign in Europe

eBay launched a long-term Call for Action campaign in Brussells yesterday, aimed at reforming the current European Union (EU) Competition, Consumer and Trademark Law. The launch meeting called on the EU to modernize competition, consumer and trademark law in order to address what it labeled “digital protectionism.”

The key speakers at the event (in the photo above and from left to right) included:
- Charlie McCreevy, European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services
- Edit Herczog, Member of the European Parliament (MEP)
- Doug McCallum, Senior Vice President, eBay Marketplaces, Europe
- Arlene McCarthy, MEP
- Meglena Kuneva, European Commissioner for Consumer Policy
- Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, MEP

Speaking at the event, Doug McCallum asserted the following:

We need to end the climate of legal uncertainty for EU customers, SME sellers and intermediaries which mean that:
1. EU consumers are denied the full benefits of price competition and choice;
2. EU consumer confidence in Internet-based markets is unnecessarily undermined; and
3. EU consumers and vendors using the Internet receive discriminatory treatment.

The Call for Action is in 5 specific areas:
1. Clarify EU competition rules to prohibit undue restrictions on buying and selling online.
2. Stop certain trademark owners from artificially segmenting the global market through restrictions on parallel imports.
3. Launch a review of the EU digital environment to see how best to harness its potential for the benefit of consumers.
4. Create a single set of EU consumer rules to make cross-border trade easier, cheaper and less burdensome for businesses.
5. Ensure proper and full implementation of the EU Services Directive.

“As it stands, the uncertainty around EU rules on vertical restraints allows too much wiggle room for certain manufacturers to restrict online buying and selling,” said Doug McCallum. “We believe this can be used to control or unduly influence the market.”

Preliminary results of a third-party study undertaken by Frontier Economics show that eBay buyers in the UK, Germany and France can obtain savings of around 17% on average in 12 key categories of products. By purchasing new products on eBay, the combined consumer savings in the UK, Germany and France are around €980 million per annum. These figures imply that across all eBay’s European operations, buyers on eBay in the EEA make savings totalling around €1.1 billion per annum.

“We need to ensure that the digital environment is one where consumers thrive. Let me be clear, there is no place in Europe’s Single Market for artificial geographical restrictions which hold consumers back within national borders,” said Meglena Kuneva, European Consumer Protection Commissioner. “I believe the time has come to look closely at the legitimacy of market partitioning along national boundaries, notably in online retail. We must act now to give our citizens the future market place they deserve.”

Given that the Call for Action is aimed at fixing a “patchwork of 27 different consumer protection regimes” it will be interesting to see how this plays out over the coming months.

Please email ebayink@ebay.com if interested in reading the full report.

Cheers,
RBH

Tagged: callforaction, ebay, ebayeurope, ebaymarketplaces, ecommerce, eu, europeanunion, trademark law, trustandsafety

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MechelleOn 06.27.2008 at 12:21 pm Said:

Are you asking if the cosmetics as a whole are more likely to be fake?? or are you asking if they are fake are they more likely to contain harmful ingredients?

I know the large majority of cosmetics on eBay are not fake. I do think that fake cosmetics are more likely to be potentially harmful.

The absurd thing with the Mac is it does not retail very high, yet the way people are about it you would think it was one of the pricier brands. It isn’t - (I am a cosmetics seller and I can with 100% certainty guarantee they are not fake) I sell 6 brands of makeup and only one of those retail for less than Mac- the rest are significantly more expensive retail. Discontinued Mac is the biggest draw and can go for oddly high prices- I have seen Mac eye shadow that retails for 14 dollars - go for 60 bucks because it was discontinued- it is insane.

The fake Mac is not imitating anything special (discontinued sold out) it is plain stupid fake eye shadow, but the lots are attractive because you can get this 14 dollar eye shadow for 6,7,8 dollars - the china and Thailand sellers can’t get their hands on the real stuff, which is why they don’t care how low the lots goes for.

here are some item numbers - notice the sellers are Thailand with 0 feedback - if you look up Mac eye shadow in search you will see they flood the floor with these lots.

After you look at the auctions of the item numbers do a search so you know what you are looking for and you will see what I am talking about.

280239689772

170232903731

220250533823

look in other items they are selling so you can see how many they have out there

MechelleOn 06.27.2008 at 12:26 pm Said:

looks like eBay did something otherwise they just removed them from my watch list. I’m not sure what happened, but they are gone. Hopefully that means eBay finally did something. Though I didn’t see that the sellers were suspended

MistyOn 06.27.2008 at 12:36 pm Said:

I have no issue with the sell of cosmetics, I am saying that it is the fakes that more than likely contain the harmful ingredients.

We are on the same side of the fence here, I believe you misunderstood my original statement.

I feel as you do with the fake items being sold our only difference is your talking cosmetics and I am talking art pottery such as Roseville as those are our individual areas of expertise.

When I say everyone needs to be accountable what I am implying is if they are going to spend the high dollar for an original they need to educate themselves on identifying the fakes and reproductions to better protect themselves same is true for a seller as not everyone knows an original from a fake and eBay needs to recognize this.
I hope I have better clarified the misunderstanding for you.

MistyOn 06.27.2008 at 12:46 pm Said:

I also agree there are those out there who do know and are taking advantage, as you mention those from Thailand those are the ones I feel need to be banned.

MechelleOn 06.27.2008 at 12:46 pm Said:

yes you have, and yes there are a lot of sellers who can be duped.

I have just reported the rest hopefully eBay will take care of those as well.

anyone else notice when we talk about these issues on Richards blog they seem to get taken care of???

MistyOn 06.27.2008 at 12:53 pm Said:

Yes there are and I admit I even have been duped a few times myself.
I am glad to hear they are being removed hopefully eBay will get a clue and ban those sellers from listing as they are the ones who are bringing down the integrity of the whole site.

MechelleOn 06.27.2008 at 1:11 pm Said:

It’s hard to know when you first encounter these criminals - after you have been conned you learn who they are (or what to look for in the listings) and stay clear. Unfortunately we have to experience being conned because eBay won’t just block these offending countries from selling this junk on eBay.com. It is to simple not to. I shouldn’t have to spend a couple hours reporting this [sentence edited: see comment policy] when it would be so easy for them to block those countries from that and any other category that they affect.