EBay Sues Amazon, Alleging Sellers Were Illegally Poached -- 2nd Update
October 17 2018 - 5:56PM
Dow Jones News
By Laura Stevens
EBay.com Inc. on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against Amazon.com
Inc. accusing the company of illegally poaching sellers on its
marketplace via eBay's internal messaging system.
The lawsuit, filed in Santa Clara County in California, accuses
Amazon of having "perpetrated a scheme to infiltrate and exploit
eBay's internal member email system" over the past few years. The
alleged scheme was used by dozens of Amazon sales representatives
in the U.S. and abroad to recruit high-value eBay sellers to
Amazon, the lawsuit said.
The Wall Street Journal previously reported that eBay had sent a
cease-and-desist letter to Amazon with the same claims.
An Amazon spokeswoman responded by referring to the company's
earlier statement, which said that it was conducting a thorough
investigation of the accusations.
"For years, and unbeknownst to eBay, Amazon has been engaged in
a systematic, coordinated effort to infiltrate and exploit eBay's
proprietary M2M system on eBay's platform to lure top eBay sellers
to Amazon," eBay alleges in the lawsuit. "The scheme is startling
in breadth -- involving large numbers of Amazon representatives
("Amazon reps"), targeting many hundreds of eBay sellers, and
spanning several countries overseas and many states in the United
States (including California)."
In the complaint, eBay cites alleged evidence "that Amazon
coordinated this scheme from its headquarters," including that many
of the messages sent to its sellers followed similar patterns or
were even identical. Many of the accounts used to send the messages
were accessed from devices linked to Amazon internet protocol
addresses, the lawsuit adds.
Three accounts created by one individual sent more than 120
solicitation messages to sellers without conducting any actual
business on the platform, eBay alleges. Amazon representatives also
acknowledged they were breaking eBay's rules, the lawsuit says.
Amazon representatives from the U.S., U.K., France, Spain,
Italy, Australia and Singapore engaged in these types of methods,
eBay alleges. And some of it succeeded, the company adds, saying
that representatives discussed their successes with sellers.
EBay asked in the claim to permanently enjoin Amazon from
misusing its messaging system and for monetary relief in the form
of unspecified damages.
EBay's lawsuit accuses Amazon of intentional interference with
contractual relations and economic relations, as well as fraud and
violation of the California penal and business and professions
codes.
Amazon and eBay have been competing for both sellers and
consumers for years. Both companies heavily rely on independent
merchants to sell items on their sites. EBay is wholly reliant on
such sellers to sell on its marketplace, while Amazon uses a hybrid
model as a retailer with a platform for independent sellers,
too.
Still, Amazon as of late has relied more heavily on independent
merchants to fuel its sales. Typically, those transactions are more
profitable because Amazon takes a cut of the revenue and charges
for warehousing, advertising and other fees. More than 50% of all
items sold on its site are now provided by outside sellers.
Amazon has proved a dominant e-commerce competitor, nabbing
roughly 50% of U.S. online sales. But eBay has been working to
catch up in recent years, making its website easier to navigate and
highlighting that more than 80% of products for sale there are
new.
Many merchants sell on both sites, but some focus their business
on one or the other.
EBay's internal messaging system allows sellers to communicate
with one another, with the company and with customers. The
company's user agreement prohibits its use for trading outside
contact information, spamming and promoting sales outside eBay.
Write to Laura Stevens at laura.stevens@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 17, 2018 17:41 ET (21:41 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024