eBay Ink in Washington D.C. for AAI Press Conference

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FEATURED POSTRichard Brewer-Hay / Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008

eBay Ink in Washington D.C. for AAI Press Conference

Antitrust experts from the government, legal and academic communities are joining retailers and consumer advocates in Washington, D.C. on Thursday to discuss the anti-consumer effect that newly legal price-fixing, also known as ‘retail price maintenance’ (RPM), has had on the cost of consumer products.

From 1911 to 2007, antitrust law prohibited manufacturers from punishing retailers for selling at discounted prices. However, last year’s Leegin Supreme Court ruling overturned that law. On Thursday, retailers and consumer advocates, including eBay and the Consumer Federation of America will provide an outline of how the Leegin Supreme Court case has affected retailers and consumers. Policymakers and policy experts including Federal Trade Commission Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour will discuss possible courses of action to address the negative impact of price fixing.

I’ll be covering the event live, in-person on the eBay Ink Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/ebayinkblog beginning at 9am ET this Thursday, December 4. I’ll also include any and all materials that come out of the event in an Ink post later that day.

For more information about Thursday’s event, and the American Antitrust Institute in general, be sure to check out http://www.antitrustinstitute.org/.

Cheers,
RBH
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Jerry Kohl / December 3rd, 2008 at 9:13 pm

This is crazy. This change in the law has changed nothing. Go to Macy’s. They have 10,000 vendors.
Pricinng policies are affecting about 12 of them.
You have to compare the amount of excluded from sales to 2 years ago. Nothing has changed.

Iam the President of Leegin – if the lawmakers really cared they would have talked to me.
I am the one who changed the law.

Jessy S. / December 4th, 2008 at 11:39 pm

I agree. There is a double standard here. It doesn’t get any bigger box than buy.com when it comes to large volume sellers regarding eBay. Last I checked, eBay is trying to hurt the little guy. What did JD call us. Oh yes, Noise.

Jonathan Henschel / December 5th, 2008 at 4:16 am

I read the following quote from eBay Vice President of Global Government Relations Tod Cohen:

“For the small businesses that have a kitchen-table for a boardroom – and smarts and sweat for a line of credit – the Internet is the way to break through to the consumer and give them choice with low prices and quality products. But make no mistake. Entrenched retail interests see those choices as a threat…”

I have been selling on eBay for 10 1/2 years, and for most of my tenure, eBay has been exactly what they say they are fighting for. However, when eBay starts making a public stand to fight for my rights to sell successfully, shouldn’t eBay first ‘look within’?

A significant number of eBay sellers now feel like it is eBay and not the ‘big box sellers’ who are trying to keep them from selling successfully. We deal with horribly high fees, low sell-through rates, constantly changing rules, regulations and site changes (most of which are unnecessary and time consuming). We deal with little to no customer service and take all of the risk in every transaction.. and we are forced to pay for it or sell elsewhere.

If eBay truly wants GOOD sellers with “a kitchen-table for a boardroom – and smarts and sweat for a line of credit”, then eBay needs to do anything and everything it can to keep them and win back the ones they have lost.

In the end, if eBay helps them succeed, then eBay succeeds as well. If eBay forces too many more out the door, then all of these efforts will have been for nothing.

Rich / December 5th, 2008 at 10:37 am

Ebay is doing the same thing to its own small sellers . . . trying to squeeze them out of the market place. It seems as though this is a good example of the pot calling the kettle “black”.

Rick Gagliano / December 5th, 2008 at 10:46 am

You’ve got to be kidding! eBay is going to cry about Big Box retailers shutting out small merchants, when all they’ve done over the past year is try to kill every small merchant on their site. Seriously, 15%, plus PayPal fees for every transaction is a bit much to take, isn’t it.

eBay is going to find out just how difficult the recession/depression environment really is when they report 1st quarter results. Make it easy and REASONABLE to list on ebay and you won’t have to lobby congress. Get a brain!

Dave / December 5th, 2008 at 2:01 pm

Are you kidding me ebay now wants to complain. Sorry ebay get your act together you are throwing the small sellers off the site left and right and now you want to complain about the big boys not playing fair with you?

I sold on ebay for over 6 years and thanks to all the rediculas changes and your fee hikes I no longer sell on ebay. Ebay stated they want the bigger retailers on the site and not the little guys.

Ebay has lost a lot of sellers and they have lost a lot of buyers when those sellers left. Sellers are buyers too. I haven’t bought or sold anything on ebay since Febuary when they announced all the changes. You lost me as a seller and a buyer.

Do us small sellers a favor ebay stop using us as an example as how your getting hurt by the big retailers you treated us the same way the big retailers are treating you. What did JD say the site looked like a garage sale? We the sellers were all just a bunch of noise? Well as it looks now ebay is losing a lot of traffic and its not because of the big retailers hurting you its because you trashed your own sellers.

Stop talking out of both sides of your mouth ebay.

PAR / December 5th, 2008 at 2:49 pm

I couldn’t believe the video I saw where Ebay was actually trotting out us small sellers in order to plead their case. I thought – what nerve!! Now, I see I’m not alone in that thinking. I hope somebody sets Washington straight as to the real Ebay – the Ebay it has become this year. I’m another disgruntled 10 year seller who now sells elsewhere!

Mary / December 6th, 2008 at 4:21 pm

This is absolutely insulting to us, the small sellers. Ebay began and has continued a steady effort to rid itself of us. There have been so many who depended on the profits from the business that they invested their time, sweat and money in, only to have ebay destroy it, take it away without recourse and have the callousness to call in noise.

Ebay could have had both. The small sellers with their unique items, the basis and the driving force behind this company and built a separate ‘division’ to accomodate the big box sellers. The added benefit would have been-ebay could have been the ‘good guys’ by providing what they are ‘claiming’ now in this video. It would have been the RIGHT THING TO DO. The way things are looking, it’s appearing that they may end up with neither. And they would be deserving of that result. It’s called Kharma.

In this time of economic hardship, their actions have been cold, harsh and cruel to many, all resulting in the destruction of their livliehoods.

Ebay has earned all the fallout from what they have created. Greed never results in anything worth having. However, they have incredibley huge ‘stones’ to ask those whom they have stepped on and walked over, to now come to their defense!

A- / December 7th, 2008 at 3:19 pm

Interesting that ebay asks for protectionism…

PAR / December 8th, 2008 at 4:16 pm

@Mary – they’ll ignore what you said but you were right on!