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Ebay's Paypal-only policy spanked by Aussie Consumer Commission
A READER HAS alerted us to a draft notice by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which asks Ebay to cancel its plans to ram Paypal as an exclusive payment method down Australians’ throats.
Spinning some yarn about increased security, Ebay Australia announced back in April that, come June 17th, buyers would only be able to pay for their goods via the online commerce website Paypal, which the online auction firm just so happens to own. The decision had many Australians hopping mad, and even prompted a disastrous town hall style meeting where the company, attempting to justify itself, ended up comparing people who didn’t want to use Paypal to Heroin dealers.
But now it seems the ACCC is stepping in, with its chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, going on record today to say that "The ACCC is concerned that the notified conduct will allow eBay to use its market power in the supply of online marketplaces to substantially lessen competition in the market in which PayPal operates".
Samuel went on to note that because Ebay is Australia’s main online marketplace and due to the fact PayPal competes with other providers of online payment services, the firm’s insistence on using only Paypal means “there will be no competition for the supply of such services to buyers and sellers using eBay”, a move the ACCC Chairman clearly doesn’t support.
The draft went on to note that the ACCC reckons Australians are perfectly capable of making their own informed decisions about which payment method to use and sums up by requesting that Ebay “delay implementation of the second stage of the conduct until a final decision is made by the ACCC". Put that in your didgeridoo and smoke it, Ebay. µ
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using Paypal is akin to buying heroin on the street
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We need your votes to stop EBAY destroying many Australians livelyhood just for their greed and trying to double dip at the seller expense - giving false information about Paypal and the supposed safety, which anyone who has been conned by them will know is a total lie.,

ADD YOUR VOTE -
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23931373-952,00.html 

AUCTION website eBay has postponed controversial changes to payment methods for the second time after clashing with the competition watchdog.

eBay announced in April its plans to force customers to use its PayPal service under security measures prohibiting direct deposit and money orders as payment methods. 

Vote: Would the PayPal plan change your bidding habits?
Steve,

You said "Given forcing Paypal and letting people use alternative payment methods which I'm positive were used only by a tiny minority, at least in the UK, I'll take the secure Paypal way any day."

This action is taking place in Australia, and I can tell you categorically that the majority of sellers and buyers on ebay in Australia, when selling or buying to/from other Australian ebayers, prefer direct deposit to any other method. I have been using ebay since 2002, and have had only one unsatisfactory transaction, and that payment was made through Paypal. Even though Paypal acknowledged that the seller had not supplied to goods, I was unable to get a refund from Paypal. I was, however, able to instigate a Chargeback through my Credit Card provider. The amount was for US$100.00, but Paypal would not cover this, as the seller had closed his account, and cleared it of all funds. 

As for alternative payment methods, there are several; direct deposit, as I have mentioned; Credit Card (many ebay sellers have these facilities, and it is safer than Paypal); Google have a system, but I'm not sure what it is called; Paymate, to name just a few.

It's not about bagging Paypal, I have used Paypal many times for international transactions, and apart from that one hitch, ahve been reasonably satisfied. I say reasonably satisfied because many sellers will not allow Australian buyers to use Paypal, leaving only the very expensive internation funds transfer through a bank, it's about the Australian Consumer Protection Laws. Ebay are actually aware that they are attempting to infringe those laws, and are asking the ACCC for an exemption.

Imagine if you will, making a major purchase from a department store, only to be told that your Abbey National credit card in unaccceptable, and only Barclay's Bank credit cards are appropriate. This is what ebay are attempting to do; control the way that merchants can provide payment options, and how purchasers can pay. Granted, not all options are required, but the seller surely has the right to determine what options he will offer, not ebay.

Have a look here for an in depth discussion as to why it should not be allowed. http://www.itwire.com/content/view/17742/1023/1/2/
And yet the ACC is happy for Foxtel, the effectively monopolistic cable/satellite TV broadcaster co-owned by the former state telco Telstra, to broadcast with closed, proprietary encryption, with the result that they have a monopoly on STBs, and HTPC users are left frustrated.
In England eBay just blocked sellers from giving negative feedback score to buyers. I would say it goes in the same direction as in Australia :(
evil ebay and evil paypal. they are just as much megalomaniacs as microsoft.
trying to tell people what they can and can't do is nothing short of dictatorship.

i say boycott the scum. let their business decline and then they will notice.

don't know if they'll learn from it though - this type of attitude usually has no sense of right and wrong.

its all about profit profit profit at the expense of anything and everything.

the world would be a better place without this attitude...
I'm now damm glad Ebay tried this nonsense in Australia first. The ACCC can be a bit of a pushover and if Ebay already had implemented this policy elsewhere we may not have had the good decision. Paypal only really was going to be a deal breaker for me. Glad I'll be able to continue using Ebay, although crap that we'll still have to offer paypal.
<childish comment>
Suck it eBay you greedy a**holes.
</childish comment>
I got a notice from pay pal saying they found a $400 mistake from close to 6 damm months ago. Wjhat kind of banking instutution finds a mistke 6 months later ?? if this was true it would have been discovered in the frist 24 hyrs, niot 6 months later. They can shove that $400
I just don't get it. What's your gripe with Paypal?

I have always preferred it myself and have shunned buyers/sellers who wished to pay otherwise. Paypal makes transactions quick, painless and protected.

Telling people they can't use cheques (which are being phased out anyway) and the like should surely be commended. Now maybe they should allow other online payment methods, but the only other reputable company I've heard of doing this is Google I think.

If you're going to argue that Ebay is wrong to push Paypal on us, then at least justify the argument by telling us who the real competition is and don't just use it as an excuse to bitch at Ebay for no reason, like you do too frequently with Nvidia. (For the record, I'm no Nvidia fan either, but recently the reporting on it has gotten ridiculously biased.)

Given forcing Paypal and letting people use alternative payment methods which I'm positive were used only by a tiny minority, at least in the UK, I'll take the secure Paypal way any day. I'm fairly sure that Paypal is registered now as a bank in the UK and ergo has to oblige by all our laws so what on Earth is wrong with that?