Class Law Suits??

The subject of unfair trading practices such as forcing sellers to accept ebays dodgy payment system - Paypal have been coming up. Here is part of the transcript of a converstion I have with "idee99" from Texas, US.

idee99: What do you think of a class action suit against ebay for unfair business practices?

Terry: Well, there have been other such actions, and indeed if you look at sites like http://www.paypalsucks.com/ you will see a few. Problem is though, from what ive heard, every man has his price (judges etc) and ebay can afford to pay them

idee99: I just read a lawsuit against ebay for monopoly and forcing the use paypal . How do we get publicity for our strike and the issues behind it so that some prominent firm might take on our lawsuit?

Terry: Well, Ive had a faor amount of traffic through this blog and im happy to publicise the strikes etc. The fact is though (and this is something im fast finding out - ive had over 15,000 emails since i did my listing) is that ebay really couldnt give a shit about any of it and they will just bribe who they need to bribe. The "forced paypal" thing is simply a protection racket and nothing else. Its totally illegal, but they get away with it using some bullshit about it being "safer for buyers" . It then goes on to call buyers its "customers" which is of course rubbish - sellers are! We need a major law firm to take them on.. I just dont think they will.

idee99: The way I see it, sellers get routinely scammed by buyers as well as the other way around. However, from what i read (I am a small seller with 100% feedback and haven't experience the many scamms you mentioned in your ad, but know they truley exist) ebay routinley defalts in favor of the buyer even when the prponderance of the evidence show that items have been received etc. etc. That should be illegal. I think if we could get national /international attention to the strike and the resons behind it, public opiniion would go against ebay and they might have to reconsider as that is their "customer" base.

idee99: You seem to have received much attention for your auction/ad. Has any international media sought your interview?

Terry: You are totally correct about the scam problem. The vast majority of emails i have had have been from scammed sellers. Paypal is simply a scammers tool and nothing else. The problem is that "consumer champions" you know the ones - those TV programmes that expose dodgy traders only ever concentrate on dodgy sellers - they never expose dodgy buyers. People forget that ebays customers (and therefore its consumers) are actually its sellers (its fee payers) and so the sellers are the ones the consumer shows should be championing. Its a change of thinking thats needed in the media. How that will happen, well I dont know, but Im giving it a good shot myself. Ive had contact from the media and I have put the view you put in your last post - a number of times. Ebay will only care about this if people leave (stop listing) en mass - not just a few thousand, but millions. The only way that will happen is media coverage of the REAL issues. I hope this blog will help in that fight , but much more is needed - much much more.

Terry: Yes, Ive had contact from various media over the last week or so - just hope they will publish the story.

....... So howabout it - Anyway Lawyers out there up for taking on Paypal/Ebay?? I will dream on.....