Another lawsuit against ebay:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22866777-23109,00.html
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22866777-23109,00.html
A spokesman for the online giant said the website acted as an "auction broker" that "facilitates meetings between buyers and sellers" and that its activities "do not constitute a public auction".
I guess it comes down to whether the court views eBay, Inc. as an auctioneer or not. WordNet defines the word as auctioneer as:accuses the internet trader of breaking a French 2000 law that requires all auctioneers to be approved by the state.
I doubt seriously that the auction houses will win, but I do think that it's a very gray area in French law:
I guess it comes down to whether the court views eBay, Inc. as an auctioneer or not. WordNet defines the word as auctioneer as:
1. an agent who conducts an auction
Since eBay owns the computer servers and the software that facilitates the auction, and that auction could not take place *without* eBay's involvement, they are conducting the auction as far as I see it...to me personally I feel that's the definition of auctioneer.
I am sure that eBay's defense will be that they never own or take possession of the items, but I think that's complete doublespeak--live auction houses don't OWN the items either though they do take possession of them.
But I'm neither a judge, nor French, so we'll see!