posted on October 23, 2001 09:21:16 AM
I am a seller who has their own website. In the past I have placed links to my website on my eBay auctions and listed the other products that I carry. As most of you probably know, eBay no longer allows this and shuts down auctions that do so. This is what I found at [http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-adsfaq2.html] Allowing links to sites off eBay is detrimental to sellers that are listing only on eBay and counting on that traffic.
This is because eBay has forced people to start an eBay STORE, so that they can get all of their fees!
This makes me very angry. I sell some through eBay and I depend on traffic coming to my site through that. Ebay makes plenty of money off of me.
This seems like a monopoly to me. What are your thoughts?
Also, how have you dealt with the problems of not being able to placed links to your site on your auctions?
posted on October 23, 2001 09:34:33 AM
It is their site, why should they make it easy for people to make deals off of eBay. They are a business in a tough environment. They are here to make money..period. Walmart doesn't let Kmart put up ads in their store that say go to Kmart. Just my opinion
posted on October 23, 2001 10:25:02 AM
Ebay is about as close as you can get to having monopolized the internet auction market. They were in on the action early and have done a great job of creating and defending their empire.
Like it or not, they really are the only TRUE game in town.
posted on October 23, 2001 10:33:06 AM
I forget. Are nonclickable website names allowed in eBay auction Ads? How about marking your pictures with your Website name, say something to the effect "this image property of WWW.ABCD.COM" ? Is that allowed?
I'm sure there are other innocuous ways of mentioning your Website without eBay eliminating your auctions. How about selecting an eBay ID that is your Website name? In the above example your ID would be "ABCD" and you could then say something in your Ad to indirectly call attention to the fact that your ID is a Website name. Maybe say something like "Stay tuned for more great deals from ABCD.com". Some may check out the link.
Or you could force bidders to go to your About Me page which is allowed to have your Website link and promotional verbage. Your About Me page could be a big old advertisement for your website. You could state in your auction descriptions your shipping terms and conditions are found on your About Me page. This could work if you have flat shipping rates for your products and maybe a coding structure for your fees (i.e. A = $2.95, B= $3.95, ... X = $99.95, etc.). It would standardize your fees for all auctions in one place. My suppliers use this coding technique to specify shipping on products. You could simply state "This item uses shipping code B. Please see my About Me page for specifics.". Most people won't bid without knowing what you'll charge for shipping.
posted on October 23, 2001 10:33:40 AM
There are legal monopolies, and illegal monopolies. Legal monopolies include those that the government itself creates (such as utilities, patents, copyrights, etc) and also those that develop due to the good luck/great idea/hard work of companies. Illegal monopolies are those that develop due to tactics like collusion, predatory pricing, etc.
I don't see much evidence that ebay is an illegal monopoly - assuming they are a monopoly to start with. In order to talk about being a monopoly, you have to define the market - is it "internet auctions", "internet sales" (includes non-auctions), "retail sales" (includes brick and mortar stores), etc. If you define the market narrowly enough, we all have monopolies (my "monopoly market" would be "all ebay sales by captain kirk"...).
Even if the monopoly is technically illegal, you'd have to interest the government in intervening, which usually depends on the market being big enough to matter in the day-to-day lives of people.
In any case, I don't see where ebay has done anything significantly wrong in this regard, so I see no justification for being "angry" at them for their "monopoly", and I'm not even sure we'd define the market narrowly enough such that they do have a monopoly. Don't like their rules? set up your own website, for example..they aren't stopping that.
posted on October 23, 2001 10:48:41 AMAre nonclickable website names allowed in eBay auction Ads? How about marking your pictures with your Website name, say something to the effect "this image property of WWW.ABCD.COM" ? Is that allowed?
posted on October 23, 2001 10:56:12 AM
A monopoly is that which unlawfully restrains competition. It does not have to be intentional.
eBay may be seen as restraining trade as it continues to invent ways to keep buyers and sellers from communication in pursuit of trade. Their rule regarding contact between buyer and seller as a result of an eBay transaction in pursuit of trade outside the eBay fee structure will be challenged sooner or later.
However, these rules are exactly what is keeping very large retailers from using the eBay site as the small sellers do.
Whenever a large retailer like Disney comes on board, eBay bends or changes the rules for them. This could be seen as monopolistic tactics.
posted on October 23, 2001 11:01:49 AM
You can have your logo, which if you name is WWW.XYZ.COM (XYZ.COM) then it would be there. As long as your logo is not clickable aka linked to your website. We have had our logo in our auction listing for a few years. We removed the clickable link, and ebay no longer says anything.
Also you can just state your name in text. At least this gets you advertised, and ebay can't say much, because all your are doing is saying, "Hey, this is who you are doing business with and our name."
Many people use their ebay name as an advertisement. While ebay imposed limits to www.yourname.com people have gotten around it, others have the grandfather clause where they have had the name for many years.
Some are using yourname*com, (www.yourname.com), and several other means. I don't know if ebay will stop this in the future.
I don't think ebay can be considered a monopoly... yet. One, there is competition however feeble, such as amazon.com and yahoo.com. Not to mention hundreds of smaller niche and alternate sites, even though NONE can match even the levels of yahoo.com.
I do think that ebay is getting too big for their britches and sooner or later, someone is going to give them a run for their money. Many large companies have found this out and some have nearly collapsed because of it.
Ebay's arrogance can be seen very clearly in a shining example: Auctions For America.
posted on October 23, 2001 06:42:07 PM
I think the way the govt anti-trust groups decide if a market is non-competitive is with a rule like "If there are fewer than 4 players that own 75% or more of the market, it is not a competitive market." One player with 80% of the online auction market would qualify handily.
I'm not saying eBay doesn't deserve the market share they have or that they are doing anything wrong -- unless they are *ruled* a monopoly by the government. If eBay is officially ruled a monopoly by the govt/courts, then there are things they can and cannot legally do as a monopoly.
Some things that are anti-competitive are perfectly legal for a non-monopoly company, but not legal for a monopoly company. For example, contract clauses that restrict a business partner from engaging in business with a competitor to the monopoly company. Or in the case of Microsoft, telling computer manufacturers that it will cost more to buy Windows if you don't install Explorer as the default browser when you ship machines. IOW, "if you use less of our products, it will cost you more". That's anti-competitive for a company like Microsoft that own a market and can dictate how hardware vendors have to setup/sell their machines.
posted on October 23, 2001 08:15:58 PM
Yea, but how would you break up ebay? Into smaller auction sites by category? Have them give money to competitors?
I don't believe that ebay is a monopoly. They haven't stopped up and coming sites (there are hundreds of auction sites), and have not attempted to stop their expansion. It's not ebay's fault that yahoo and amazon dropped the ball, and that no one is really willing to give them a run for their money.
What HAS stopped the competition is the dry up of VC and people being down on the tech market. No one with any money is willing to invest in a new auction site. I seriously think that if someone with funding opened a new auction site and had a solid marketing plan they would be very successful. However, no one has stepped up to the plate to even HIT a homerun.
posted on October 23, 2001 10:08:00 PM
Check out this site: "A Plain English Guide to Antitrust Laws":
http://www.ftc.gov/bc/compguide/index.htm
A market with hundreds of competitors entering the market and failing or not gaining market share does not imply the market is competitive, IMO. In fact, just the opposite (again, my opinion).
Acknowledging the existence of a monopoly does not mean it has to be broken up. It does mean that the monopoly has to live by certain rules *because* it is a monopoly.
Microsoft is not in trouble because they are a monopoly; they are in trouble because as a monopoly, they cannot use their monopoly status in the marketplace to preserve or expand their monopoly, for example, by insisting that PC manufacturers that want to distribute Windows also distribute Internet Explorer.
I found this paragraph particularly interesting:
"Other practices demand closer scrutiny based on principles that the courts and antitrust agencies have developed. These cases are examined under a "rule of reason" analysis. A practice is illegal if it restricts competition in some significant way and has no overriding business justification. Practices that meet both characteristics are likely to harm consumers -- by increasing prices, reducing availability of goods or services, lowering quality or service, or significantly stifling innovation."
posted on October 24, 2001 10:20:32 AM
Thank you for your replies. I believe eBay has monopolized the internet auction market and they are using their power to force people to do things they wouldn't otherwise do. Are you sellers happy about your eBay Stores. Doesn't eBay get a fee for <b>everything</b> you sell?
Eventer - can you tell me where to find information on eBay's site about:
<i>How about marking your pictures with your Website name, say something to the effect "this image property of WWW.ABCD.COM" ? </i> I would like to look into that further.
Does eBay allow you to have a user ID of www.xyz.com?
If found all your suggestions very helpful. Please, keep them coming.
You could state in your auction descriptions your shipping terms and conditions are found on your About Me page. This could work if you have flat shipping rates for your products and maybe a coding structure for your fees (i.e. A = $2.95, B= $3.95, ... X = $99.95, etc.). It would standardize your fees for all auctions in one place. My suppliers use this coding technique to specify shipping on products. You could simply state "This item uses shipping code B. Please see my About Me page for specifics.". Most people won't bid without knowing what you'll charge for shipping. 