Unlawful and Unfair
We filed a complaint in California today, charging eBay with unlawful and unfair competition, misappropriation of proprietary information, deceptive passing-off, business interference, false advertising, phishing attacks, free-riding, trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and breaches of fiduciary duty.
We respectfully ask the Superior Court in San Francisco to enjoin this conduct and order eBay to (1) make full restitution to craigslist, (2) disgorge their related profits (3) restore to craigslist all shares of the company acquired by means of, or for the purpose of unfair competition, and (4) pay punitive damages for their malicious behavior.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Good luck with your lawsuit. I’m rooting for you. I think Craigslist is by far one of the best things to ever exist on the internet. Ebay should stay in the auction market and back off what is clearly a hostile move. It smells like corporate greed to me.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
[…] being hit with an eBay legal missile last month, Craigslist has responded with a projectile of its own: the company has filed a countersuit accusing the online auction company — which owns a […]
May 13th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Big, bad eBay - not satisfied with most of it, now wants it ALL! Remember the diversification of “Ma Bell” a few years ago? It’s time for some of that medicine on eBay. Go get ‘em, Craig!
May 13th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Seems like posturing to me! Best of luck with that approach… you’ll need it.
May 13th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
What can we do to give eBay some grief? The article I read today mentioned that eBay has created an online website to compete against Craigslist. Does anyone know the name of it? We can bombard them with disapproving emails.
May 13th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Could craigslist post the legal complaint in text format? Making it easy for anyone and everyone to find and read it?
May 13th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
This is just shameful. Ebay thrived on community spirit but it seems they’ve fallen to corporate shenanagans. Craigslist simply rocks because it’s always stayed true to it’s users first, corporate a distant second.
May 13th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
go for it, Craig, we love u
May 13th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Ebay is an example of corporate greed taken to the extreme. It certainly sounds like craigslist has a valid complaint. I hope craigslist wins the judgement and ebay is held accountable for their actions.
May 13th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Craigslist Rocks ! eBay is an evil corp. 5 yrs free of tyrany. bust or disassemble eBay!
May 13th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
What are those “phishing attacks”?
Might be good to know independently of any law suit.
May 13th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
[…] The official list via Craigslist: “We filed a complaint in California today, charging eBay with unlawful and unfair competition, misappropriation of proprietary information, deceptive passing-off, business interference, false advertising, phishing attacks, free-riding, trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and breaches of fiduciary duty.” […]
May 13th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Communists rule! Down with the big bad corporation! Socialists unite!
May 13th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Full text is available in PDF, click “Full text of the complaint is available” in the OP
I did, a good read!!
May 13th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
[…] can’t help but think that Craigslist’ssalvo against eBay is an attempt to accomplish by litigation what it failed to accomplish by […]
May 13th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
[…] a filed complaint of its own, which has been filed in California. According to Craigslist’s blog, Craigslist is charging eBay with “with unlawful and unfair competition, misappropriation of […]
May 13th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
I have been an ebay seller for a few years now but I am looking to find other areas where I can market on line, as I am fed up with the phishing attacks and the couldnt care less attitude displayed in stopping these by ebay. They dont make it easy for either buyer or seller to get support and only seem interested in taking your money. If anyone knows of good sites for online sellers I would appreciate knowing of them.
May 13th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
[…] to a post on the Craigslist blog (and buried in the document above), Craigslist is asking the court to enjoin […]
May 13th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Who are these sockpuppets/ebay plants that keep posting links to ebay apologists? Booooooooooooring!
Craig and Jim, I’m glad you came back and said what needed to be said. I can imagine, at least from Craig’s perspective, that he is loath to bother with all this crap, but really your hand is being forced by those creeps.
I remember myself the days of Pierre at ebay (back when it was called Auction Web, and before all the bigshot CEOs), and things have definitely gone downhill from an ethical perspective.
More support from a long-time neighbor, fan, and CL user.
May 13th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Certainly it would have been preferable to be the first to take action. The ‘countersuit’ never looks quite as good as the ‘offended party’.
Still, I can’t help but think that eBay starting a competing company won’t look good to the court.
May 13th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
For any of you that are interested, you’ve got the support of eBay sellers:
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000697800&tstart=0&mod=1210723789055
It’s late for a lot of us (we’re more active during the day), and got the news late.
I used to be an eBay cheerleader, now they just give me a bad taste in my mouth.
Go craigslist, we’re behind you!
May 13th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
I just read the complaint and wish you guys well in court. It was clear to me from the very first day that ebay was two-faced over the acquisition. They want nothing less than market domination because they know that with that comes fat profit margins and pricing power.
May 13th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Just reading now. Good for you — on the surface this seems like the right thing to do IMHO.
May 13th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Who had the helm when eBay was allowed to acquire some control, and where are they asking, “Would you like to try a combo meal” now…?
May 13th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
I wonder why craigslist didn’t file a complaint before EBAY filed against them if there was so much going on. Why did you wait? That makes me wonder if your complaint is for real or if craigslist is making this up
May 13th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
I don’t like what ebay is doing to craigslist. Ebay you had your time and Craigslist has offered the public better service, they out thought you and out smarted you without using greed as a motive. SO BACK OFF…
BUT SOCIALISM — is this what we really want. Have you ever lived in a socialist government. I have, my family has, that’s why we are here and have become Americans for the freedom to live our lives our way. Not by the way my government told me to live. Do you really want to loose your rights to blog, email, read, speak, wear, have, and live. Do you have any idea what freedoms you will loose if we become like Russia, Iran, North Korea, China, etc.
May 13th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
I want to buy stock in craigslist if that is possibile
May 13th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
craigslist is the best site on the internet. Period. Under no circumstances should this site be interfered with by anyone–no other site does as much real good for as many people, worldwide.
eBay is scrabbling for market share, struggling to keep the customers they have price-gouged until many have left in disgust. Now eBay will try to eventually FORCE craigslist users to pay them for an inferior classified service! Outrageous.
I am really sick of eBay and others of their ilk.
OK, everyone out there–ask yourself this: If Google disappeared, are there other search engines? The stampede to fill the Google gap would be immediate. If eBay disappeared, would another auction site appear to fill the gap? Overnight, that gap would be filled. There is nothing special about search engines and auction sites.
What could ever replace craigslist? Nothing. Think for a minute about a world with no craigslist… Horrible thought, huh?
The loss of craigslist and what it brings to the global community would cause immeasurable, and probably irreparable, harm to millions of people who rely on it for information and communication every day. Many use craigslist to help them make a living.
Never quit, craigslist guys. You are unique, and you are doing more to help people survive and prosper in this difficult, changing world than anyone else I know. The world economy owes you a huge debt, as does global social networking.
Yes, I have used eBay in the past. NO MORE. If every loyal craigslist user would immediately boycott eBay–and email them to say so–maybe they would get the message.
I will not use eBay again until they stop suing and interfering with craigslist.
Who else out there will join me??
May 13th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Good Move!
Drag all that dirty eBay Laundry out for the public to see!
eBay went too far this time!
May 13th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
There appear to be “Insider” violations in the complaint. Has Craigslist made a formal documented filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commssion (SEC) over possible criminal conduct by eBay?
: Full text is available in PDF
People using Google will find the PDF document, but none of the written content. eBay made available their legal filing in text format to allow reporters, bloggers, and “plants”, to easily reproduce and spread that content.
Craigslist should consider a releasing a text (TXT) version.
May 13th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Socialism?? craigslist is far from socialist; it is real freedom at its best. A truly free market, free exchange of ideas… all of the things that politicians and market-makers hate.
By the way, I just posted my blog above to eBay’s site: http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000697800&start=40
Vote with your dollars, people. Don’t do business with eBay again. That is what a free market is all about.
May 13th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Stephan,
The phishing info is in the text of the lawsuit - basically eBay purchased google ads that said Craiglist.com big and bold and when the searcher clicked on the ad they were taken to eBay or Kijiji instead of Craiglist.
May 13th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
The problem with text versions, it seems to me, is that anyone can manipulate them. You never really know if what is being quoted are actually the original words, or just someone’s slightly-edited version.
Anne made an excellent point about the distinction between craigslist and most other larger internet sites out there - whose only real committment to anything is to make money.
If craigslist was not headed up by people who have a very deep and abiding and relatively selfless committment to PEOPLE and COMMUNITIES, it would not be craigslist. (Just adopting an African word as a title does not bestow any of that humanist credibility to eBay’s stupid copycat site either, ya twits)
May 13th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Way to go Craigslist! Hope you win.
We love Craigslist and use it all the time to sell and buy stuff.
We’re long time eBay-ers and Mom&Pop PowerSellers that closed up shop May 1 - We’re moving off that site to places we don’t feel ashamed of - it’s just not a place we want to be associated with any longer.
May 13th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
You ought to start a collection for a legal fund. There are a lot of Ebay haters out here…..
May 13th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Evil vs. Good, E-bay you just lost another dedicated shopper. Craigslist I am behind you 100%. Good will prevail. Evil Bay will eventually pay big time.
May 13th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Interestingly enough, Kijiji looks a lot like craigslist.org, but with eBay colors and basic styling. The marriage of Craigslist and eBay, eh?
May 13th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Go get ‘em Craigslist. I’m routing for you. A Double Ebay Platinum Powerseller
May 13th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Good job, guys. Is there anything we can do to help and to get the message out? I want to do what I can to show others how great craigslist is and what a corporate monster eBay has become.
For my story, I used to be an eBay seller and gave up that site for craigslist for good this year. If anybody understands the history of eBay (I’ve been a member there since 2000), they know what I mean… the unfair fee hikes, acquiring PayPal to take a cut further, to the DSRs, and lack of neg. buyer feedback, complete lack of customer service (where are they spending all their money? Oh, must be TV ads and pocketed by the CEOs - way to do business, guys!)… I could go on and on, but it’s completely pointless to sell on eBay these days - it’s become too expensive and too risky! They are passe. But considering the level of complaints and their disregard towards customer service (after all, aren’t the sellers the customer, bringing the visitors and paying the bills?), I think eBay is now dying a slow death in 2008 - it’s about time all their fees caught up to them. People are taking mass exoduses. I won’t lie when I say their fees border on extortion. If anybody wants a perspective of the sellers, go visit the eBay seller’s forum. Notice how UNMODERATED it is. Notice how FRUSTRATED everybody is. Notice how many people are rallying their support for craigslist. Don’t take it from just me; it’s all over the place! I can see eBay doing conference calls right now figuring out how to combat this by artificially inflating listings and calling up every one of their top 200 sellers; I’ve heard that speculation before. Ugh… they’re scum.
Also, I hope you get your shares back! It wasn’t fair in the first place that they were swept out from underneath you. That was totally unfair, and it appeared to me back then that they did it for nefarious purposes to undermine your company (if somebody doesn’t believe me on this statement, then obviously they don’t know much about eBay’s background). I think you have a strong case against eBay and it’s about time somebody stepped up to the monopolizing giant.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Greed will be Ebay’s undoing. god speed Craigslist and best of luck.
May 13th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Go get them Craig - Do not give them an inch!
May 14th, 2008 at 1:24 am
The idea of such a profitable company as Ebay needing to attempt to eliminate Craigslist by drowning them in costly legal tangles makes me sick to my stomach. I don’t know if what eBay says is the truth or not but it makes me depressed to see Craigslist face an uncertain future instead of doing what they have done so well all along… keep the core ethic of the sixties alive. The end of Craigslist would be like Lennon’s death, a death knell of something that was born in the caldraun of the best sense of spiritual commmunity. Long live Mother Jones, James Rector Memorial Park, treks to Nepal, seeking self-awareness, seeking peace and community.
May 14th, 2008 at 1:47 am
[…] attacks, free-riding, trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and breaches of fiduciary duty, according to its blog. With minority partners like these, who need […]
May 14th, 2008 at 1:54 am
Cut the crap and just read the PDF of the complaint. eBay is one of the most unethical corporations to engage in online commerce. eBay were buying Google Adwords that listed as craigslist.org and craigslist.com, but when clicked on, redirected to kijiji.com.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:34 am
Beautifully done. Behind you all the way! If there is anything we can do, please let us know.
May 14th, 2008 at 3:59 am
As I said on an earlier post, it’s pretty obvious now what eBay was up to when they first acquired a minority interest in your company by surreptitious means. All the while they were planning to take over Craigslist and turn it into a cash cow. Greed seems to destroy all that is good and cool in this world.
May 14th, 2008 at 5:07 am
Yet again, a corporate giant tries to eat the little fish in the pond. Ebay is a political racket that intrudes on the average American’s opportunity to make a small profit for themselves by charging ridiculous fees. As if that weren’t bad enough, they take a percentage of the sale made. I had a store on ebay for over a year, and decided to do the work out of my home and only sell locally, due to the ruthlessness of Ebay- the big ugly corporate monster. Craigs list, the little guy, provides me the opportunity to earn an average of $300-$350 PROFIT a month on selling/barter/trading. I thank God everyday he allows me the benfits of CRAIGSLIST, and NO FEES. It helps keep me afloat in the damned Republican recession and $4/per gallon gas prices. LONG LIVE CRAIGSLIST!!! BURN EBAY!!!
May 14th, 2008 at 5:22 am
Craigs List you have helped my business grow by one more and more people still calling so you ROCK!!! Thanks so much.. Yes don’t give e-Bay an inch that is right and I will be praying for you. God will win and Craig’s list will come out on top.
May 14th, 2008 at 5:40 am
I became a Craigslist convert 5 years ago when I was ripped off for over $1100 on eBay by a con-artist, and in the process of reporting it to the FBI, was told by that agency, and I quote, “eBay is a haven for thieves and con-artists because eBay’s policies protect them. It’s more profitable for eBay NOT to accept responsibility for policing transactions than to do something about it.”
After getting only a single formula response to my direct e-mails to eBay CEO Meg Whitman, I saw her in a CNBC interview in a profile on eBay. In it, she was asked by David Faber what her response was to the allegations of fraud being perpetrated on buyers and sellers by con-artistst on eBay. She responded that instituting controls may leave eBay itself vulnerable to fraud by con-artists(implying that she’s okay with you and me getting defrauded through eBay, just as long as her company isn’t). Thus, she confirmed what the FBI already knew, and she made me realize the true depths of eBay’s culture of corporate greed and irresponsible business practices: it goes all the way to the top.
Disgusted, I vowed never to use eBay or PayPal again, and I haven’t. Every time I’ve turned down buying something from a vendor simply because the only form of payment processing offered was PayPal, I made sure to tell that vendor why I was doing so. I’ve heard that since my episode, eBay made a new rule to require new sellers to register a bank account and now offers a token guarantee for a certain dollar amount for transactions gone bad, but I no longer trusted eBay nor the people in charge since they made no restitution to me or the millions of other customers who had to complain vehemently in order for even those minor adjustments to be made to their policy.
Which brings me to Craigslist. When I found the site, I was amazed at its mostly non-commercial attitude and non-corporate culture. I know that when I buy or sell something on Craigslist, I can meet the other party in person and make my own judgment as to their trustworthiness instead of depending on a proven-unreliable ratings system like the one eBay makes its customers rely on. I like that Craigslist makes it very clear to buyer and sellers in every transaction how to spot and avoid fraudulent transactions. I appreciate the warnings in BOLD about phishing and other scams and how to steer clear of them.
Basically, Craigslist is everything that eBay is not, and as more people defect to Craigslist, the more eBay will cry foul and try to take a piece of Craigslist’s pie. Just remember the thug on the playground who lashes out when he realizes his bullying isn’t enough to keep friends from leaving to hang out with nicer, more popular kids, and you’ve got eBay’s behaviour in a nutshell. Go Craigslist! Marshall your substantial backing of your loyal customers and eBay defectors and let us know how we can help.
May 14th, 2008 at 5:45 am
[…] CEO Jim Buckmaster briefly posts about it and links to the complaint. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Welcome, Kijiji US. […]
May 14th, 2008 at 6:21 am
Ebay and PayPal = pure evil. Craigslist has gotten me jobs, housemates, cars, motorcycles, dates, etc. I LUV Craigslist - please don’t ever change.
Kijiji who?
May 14th, 2008 at 6:21 am
Post on the eBay Australia website where we are leaving in droves downunder. The sword has to be stuck deep into the dragons heart to defeat this now unwanted monster….a monster who has turned on the very people it dedicated to preserve and prosper….it has turned to the dark side and must be totally destroyed….die eBay….
May 14th, 2008 at 6:23 am
E-bay is a money hungry jerk. Boycott E-bay.
May 14th, 2008 at 6:59 am
Craigslist = dharma; eBay = adharma.
Arete groks arete. May Craig prevail.
May 14th, 2008 at 9:01 am
Way to go craigslist!!Ebay will eventually be sinking their own ship.Prove to them they can’t just push anyone around and do whatever they feel they want and get away with it.They are so ate up with greed they are slipping up majorly in so many areas.Let that be their downfall as we all sit back and watch them slowly tumble-ahhh…how rewarding! Hand Clap to Craigslist!!
May 14th, 2008 at 9:17 am
WOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
:) 
Normally I don’t enjoy being called for jury duty, however I’d PAY to be on this one!!! lol
Where do I sign up!!!
WAY TO GO CRAIG AND JIM!!!!!
May 14th, 2008 at 9:57 am
How do we contribute?
May 14th, 2008 at 10:34 am
How is it that Google allowed eBay’s phishing AdWords ads to be shown? As AdWord customer, I know I’d never be allowed to create such an ad, it would be disapproved immediately.
May 14th, 2008 at 10:55 am
I posted an “iBook wanted” message recently and received 2 unsigned emails with deceptive urls that redirect to eBay. Here is one:
Hey there,
I found your wanted ad on craigslist looking for “Wanted”
I just bought that from here http://www.ezresearch.info/forsale/?x=MCU3Yw==, the service was amazing and
it arrived within days.
I thought you may want to check it out.
ok bye
May 14th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Is there a way for us to financially contribute to your lawsuit against eBay? I love this site and I’d hate to see anything that can negatively impact our community here.
Regards,
Allen
May 14th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Yeah, good luck with that. I’d be willing to bet that this suit will be thrown out, even with a San Fran judge at the helm.
If you don’t like the competition, then you shouldn’t have gotten into bed with them in the first place.
May 14th, 2008 at 11:58 am
ebay is making a huge mistake. In terms of reputation, users LOVE Craigslist. Consumers may like eBay, but few LOVE it the way CL users love Craig (and Craigslist). He started the only successful website to put user experience above advertising profits and to truly maintain both user-driven content and user-driven design.
Craigslist is not just a website or a company, it is a COMMUNITY. eBay is changing their corporate image from amazing “how did they do it? I wish I’d thought of that!” internet company to evil corporate asshats. The kind of independent, resourceful consumers who love CL will not hesitate to boycott eBay until this lawsuit is settled.
I suggest all Craigslist community members not only boycott eBay, but use the Feedback feature to suggest that other eBay users join the boycott. It does not hurt the seller’s rating to just include it in the comment.
May 14th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
I just tried kijiji I did a search under the jobs.
Their format strains my eyes. I like Craigslist’s format better. Everything about kijiji stinks because the format and print really hurt my eyes.
I would never go to kijiji again. Craigslist has helped me find roomates, dates, buy and sell stuff with no problem.
I hope Craigslist get to buy back their shares from Ebay.
I don’t like Ebay’s heavy handed tactics.
I wish Ebay will go out of business.
May 14th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
As an eBay seller, I hope that you prevail in your lawsuit.
Their heavy-handed treatment of their “members” is surpassed only by the arrogance they display toward other sites.
GOOD LUCK!
May 14th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Craigs ain’t the only one suing eBay - see below:
Round one of the Windsor Auctions litigation took place on May 9th. Windsor had previously filed suit against eBay, because eBay gave access to an end time duration tool, which allowed staggered auction end times on live auction items and afforded high visibility in eBay core to a select few live jewelry auctioneers. Although Windsor contends that this created an unfair competitive advantage for these particular sellers, eBay contends, as part of a motion to dismiss Windsor’s action, that the tool in question was accessible to everyone, whether they were a direct customer of eBay or not.
The U.S. District court, where the Windsor action was filed has not issued a ruling yet; however, the judge is not going to dismiss the case in its entirety or without the ability to amend. The Judge is inclined to dismiss the federal antitrust claim on a purely technical ground.
After the filing of the complaint in this case and one week before eBay announced the closure of the live auctions platform, eBay terminated, on thirty days notice, all eBay user ID’s and passwords that were associated with or maintained by the CEO of Windsor.
Thereafter, on May 9, 2008, Live Auctioneers LLC terminated the un-expired contracts it still had in full force with Jewelry Auctions, Inc. and a United Kingdom based company owned and operated by Susan Allan. Specifically in its letter of termination, Live Auctioneers stated that it was terminating these contracts for no other reason than the fact that eBay had made their own performance impossible by terminating Windsor’s user ID’s. Under these circumstances, Windsor at this time will amend its complaint to include punitive damages against eBay for tortious interference with the economic advantage of a continual relationship with Live Auctioneers.
How does a company such as Windsor, which was featured in the 2007 eBay Entrepreneur article entitled “Beyond Borders”, go from being recognized as a stellar seller on eBay to being banned indefinitely? “Simply put, we sued eBay and eBay shut us down in an effort to shut us up” stated Paul Fischer CFO of Windsor. “The inaction on eBay’s part to shut down this tool and/or offer it to ALL live auction sellers in order to level the playing field, allowed a select few sellers in the jewelry category to reap millions in sales and as they were direct to eBay clients, eBay did not have to share its fees with its partner Live Auctioneers” stated Fischer.
Just how far will Windsor go in pursuing their action against eBay? “What happened was an injustice to ALL live auction sellers and as we move forward, the potential claims against eBay by 900+ live auction sellers may just paper the walls of the court for years to come. It is my opinion that eBay is shutting down eBay Live Auctions not because its priorities have changed but, for the simple reason that the past, current and future liabilities of keeping the system operational outweighed the financial benefits of improving the system. It’s not known how many potential claimants there may be out there. The use of this tool may have affected millions of regular mom and pop sellers and even those who consigned their goods to be sold through some of the world’s largest and most respected auction houses”, stated Fischer.
May 14th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
BTW - Windsor is not giving up on the antitrust part of their lawsuit from what I’ve been told. Go Craigslist! Go!
May 14th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
TEAM CRAIGSLIST!
May 14th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
I hope eBay has to PAY Big! They need to stay with what they got and leave well enough alone. eBay is good at what they do, no doubt; but craigslist is the best FREE (or almost free) advertising in the US. Don’t let them take that away!
May 14th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
[…] has posted a link to the lawsuit on its Web site in a blog posting by CEO Jim Buckmaster. In the posting, he briefly outlines the charges his company is making […]
May 14th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
I also have been a seller on Ebay for 6 years. They do serve a purpose, but greed is not a virtue. They are always trying to use spyware to see every move you make. It slows down the viewing process as your browser and security software is constantly stopping them. They are relentless. They use “doubleclick” to spy on you. Don’t believe me? Shut off your firewall and all protection for a few minutes and try looking at items on Ebay. Believer now aren’t you. May Ebay consume themselves and leave freedom alone. Greed is one of the things listed God says he detests. And you didn’t think you agreed with the Bible!
May 14th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
I’m happy to see this. I hope you guys kick their ass. Don’t know if this was EBay’s meddling, but I don’t like some of the recent changes I’ve seen on CL like requiring “phone verification” - that’s EBay-esk. CL citizens are worldly and should be able to enjoy the freedoms and dangers of an open site like this in all its glory and ugliness. Simplicity and static design is another feature of CL I have loved. EBay has destroyed itself with it’s constant design changes, all of it’s safety crap and censorship, I hope the same disease has not already infected CL.
May 14th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
If there’s any way I can help. I may have a couple of ideas on how to turn the tables by beating them in business, rather than the courts, and it might be lower cost and sweeter in the long run.
Best of luck.
May 14th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
I think Craig Newmark should set up a paypal account and ask for $1.00 donations for his legal fees to fight E-Bay.. This would frost e-bay’s ass, that they would have to handle the money that is raised to fight them in court!!
May 14th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Your Counter Suit is right on the money. Craig’s List is Competition to EBay. EBay has no Moral Center and no ethical business code; its all about the money and the ends justifies the means. They’ve incrementally walked and then stomped all over their own clientele because they can; now they’ll try to put Craig’s List in their pocket or end it because it does offer an alternative to their in your face corporate greed.
May 15th, 2008 at 2:36 am
Corporate greed is always in the mind of others… always trying to turn something noble and pure into something selfishly driven at the expense of the majority’s quintessence through clandestine demeanor…
The best of everything to the distinguished Craigslist staff in preserving the trueness of the site… More power and if we can help. God Bless!
May 15th, 2008 at 3:18 am
[…] Ebay. What have you done now? I am sure some of you know craigslist? Well it seems Ebay has been messing around with them and even taking out google ads to promote craigslist but the ads actually point to Ebay. […]
May 15th, 2008 at 3:41 am
Funny how ebay makes a big stink about pulling it’s adwords account and turns around to pull this carp!
Have at it CL you have the support of the ebay boycott community too!
May 15th, 2008 at 7:00 am
Hopefully this action will place other individuals “On Deck” to take over what CL is doing if Ebay eats them up.
May 15th, 2008 at 7:31 am
i hate ebay. its sucks i have to use it, copporate scum, i knew they would do this someday, they are the goverment of the selling community.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:10 am
Whoever thought up the name “kijiji”? My poor eyesite is challenged just trying to read it!
These kind of situations seem to appear once a company goes public. They must then satisfy shareholders and not the people they are supposed to serve.
May 15th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Go get them!! I believe ebay is way too greedy and greed pisses me off. Best of luck let me know if I can be any help
May 15th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Give ‘em HELL Craig! You have my TOTAL support!
May 15th, 2008 at 11:23 am
Let’s boycott Ebay. Let’s do these things now:
- pull all listings on ebay right now and put them on
Craigslist
- close you paypal accounts and use http://www.revolutionmoneyexchange.com instead.
FYI, “Revolution money exchange” is founded by
Steve Case, former CEO of AOL.
It’s easy. Once we do that, it will bring Ebay on its knees
and we will win!
May 15th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Let us all remove our ads and close our accounts at Ebay and Paypal.
There is always www dot revolutionmoneyexchange dot com to do the same thing Paypal does.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:29 am
We can all boycott ebay by pulling our listings and closing our accounts at ebay and paypal.
May 15th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
TAKE EBAY DOWN! They are such SLIMEBALLS!!!! Those shitbags are so incredibly dirty they will do anything to get away with screwing their patrons over and take no recourse!! I’m sad that you guys at craigslist fell for their sleeze and did business with them, I don’t know how anyone could think they had integrity, but I am rooting for you all the way!!! GO CL!!!!
May 15th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
You did right thing. EBay deserves it. EBay is on the fraud side. Once company has gotten bigger, it becomes greedy.
Thank others who suggests alternative to paypal.
the article is http://www.silentmysts.info/2008/05/ebay-deserve-it.html
May 15th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
What I cannot understand is, why has eBay executives and certain management personnel acting nefariously declaring war on sellers, craiglist and really all users on eBay. Whay are they hiding and spying? What are they hiding, what is the grand scheme that is worth destroying millions in the process of acheiving their 3 yer goal of monopolizing the services sector? One must conclude they must be breaking laws or doing something where they can’t be caught in the act of doing by the way they are so acting so defensive and ready to attack even the samllest, most harmless little guy selling on eBay. If they are up to no good, which I have no doubt they are, then why isn’t someone investigating them?
What is taking so long for anyone that monitors unfair business practices to step up and get at what eBay is doing to harm and damage so many people?
Where are the attorneys, they could have a slam dunk case against eBay, easy!
There has to be someone out there with the wherewithal and power to stop eBay from moving forward. All it would take is some work to read and understand what John Donohoe is up to.
eBay has gotten away with “murder” so far and craigslist is finally standing up to the monster eBay has grown into.
Craigslst thought eBay was a moral company started by Pierre Omidyar. They realized that eBay changed values many years ago. Really since Meg Whitman was hired by Pierre Omidyar. Having worked for Bain company, whitman met John Donohoe. He started with eBay in 2005. Those persons brought eBay to the ugly company it turned into and the opposite of what Pierre Omidyar wanted eBay to be.
So, craigslist can’t be faulted at all for eBay’s change to a purely hatful company. eBay is so disliked now it’ unbelievable, since it started out as an asy to love company that valued human beings.
If I were Omidyar I would feel like destroying the monster he created.
Go craigslist! It may be a blessing in desguise hat eBay filed against you because you have the power to bring eBay down. You will have the support of millions of people that understand in detail how eBay is operating in the most dishonest and insidious way, lyinh every step of the way. So,
May 15th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
I’m behind Craigslist, Ebay is destroying itself. I don’t even vist the site anymore and I use Craigslist daily and respect the community and the idea itself. Because of Craigslist I’ve found jobs, met several new friends, grown my part time business, and found fun stuff to do with free time. So far, Ebay has only been interested in taking my money. I say we all put preasure on Ebay via e-mails and complaints. Let them know that by messing with Craigslist, their jepordizing their own business & reputation big time. I don’t know what happened, Ebay used to be a good place.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
In support of Craigslist 100%
Ebay is evil, they are hurting themselves, hurting their credibility and their customers.
Is honor or integrity worth anything to Ebay’s CEO and shareholders lately?
Seems unlikely.
I have sold all my Ebay stock, shameful. I am ashamed to be called a “powerseller”
When will someone else set up an auction site! (Google?)
May 17th, 2008 at 12:52 am
Ebay certainaly has an unlimited supply of audacity. Hope craigslist can knock them down a peg or 2
BTW, Smart people will close down their ebay and paypal accounts. Here is the latest:
‘Secure’ PayPal page is… you guessed it
By Dan Goodin in San Francisco
16 May 2008 20:57
Extended SSL no match for the power of XSS
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/05/16/paypal_page_succumbs_to_xss/
How they can demand everyone use that securyty swiss-cheese of a payment service boggles the mind. How many security failures have there been now? Too many to count, and they have lied about every bit of it.
No wonder they are freezing everyone’s accounts left & right, they are re-couping the losses they are suffering to the hackers?
Also spotted this on YT.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRmp2vupRzs
Do I detect sarcasm?
May 17th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Instead of bringing more anger, hate, and negitivity into this world why dont you join together and help each other. Craigslist is obviously better and loyal people will stay so why worry. Its very sad that some much is going on in this world and everyone is giving their attention to pointless matters. Have fun suing and good luck with changing the world for the better
May 20th, 2008 at 6:55 am
The basic issue is the the person sitting on Craigslist’s board has a conflict of interest.
Depending on corporate governance we use, the person cannot avoid conflicts between the competing product he or she is responsible for versus Craigslist.
There is no question that Craigslist would surely not have agreed to having this individual sit on its board had they known about the person being in charge of a competing product.
Craigslist versus E-Bay - trust, reputation and investments
May 21st, 2008 at 12:01 pm
craigslist has helped many people and ebay only helps itself. recent changes in feedback actually encourage the buyer to leave negative feedback for the seller by stating in pop up form “feel free to leave honest feedback as sellers can no longer leave negative or neutral feedback for buyers” what the *uck? you get the fee for listing another fee for selling your paypal fees and then on top of everything else the dumb *hits are always on the buyers side while the seller gets *hit on-i only sell on craigslist and love the hippie free love style that corporate america can’t buy!
May 21st, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Craig you and the boys & girls rock, screw e-bay and their greed. E-bay is the enron of the internet NOTHING but greed. Stay true craig we are all counting on you. and thanks for your service to all of us.
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:54 am
I hate ebay even though I still use them because they have what I need to buy! I love you guys because I am able to sell my services for free and have money to buy from ebay. This sucks! BUT I LOVE YOU GUYS WAY MORE! I HOPE YOU GET THOSE BASTERDS! I WILL STOP USING EBAY IF YOU DON’T!
May 22nd, 2008 at 7:55 am
The following post is taken from a site on thenet THOUGHT LEADER FORUM , September 2007 http://www.leggmason.com/thoughtleaderforum/2007/conference/donahoe.htm
and relevant to Craigslist lawsuit. It defines ebays plans - Craigslist. Their plan for Disruptive Innovations. IT is a VERY long page.
“The second kind of innovation takes place around our core. We are disrupting ourselves before we get disrupted. We started noticing about three years ago that online classifieds were growing, particularly in the vehicles category. We recognized that online classifieds represented a tremendous opportunity that threatened eBay and also offered great growth potential. We immediately set off to break out a separate organizational unit to build an online classifieds capability. We bought 25 percent of Craigslist in the US and made a number of other small acquisitions. The separate unit had complete freedom to build a new platform nimbly and quickly without worrying about monetization right out of the gate. Today we’re number one or two in the Customer to Customer [C2C] classifieds business in over 50 countries and 400 cities around the world. We have 32 million unique visitors a month, growing at 80 percent per year. We have 2.2 million page views and 8.3 million listings. This is a classic disruption. For the first 18 months we didn’t charge. We called it “free to C.” The insight was that people would use online classifieds if they didn’t have to pay. Craigslist has really low barriers to start because it’s free. We told the classifieds team to get the user experience right, get penetration, get viral adoption and then we would worry about how to monetize it. We discovered that we can charge subscriptions in some cases, charge companies when they list jobs and charge dealers when they list autos. Now the business is growing revenues and profits as well as users.”
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:39 am
Ebay is not even an auction ,, its a contest to see who can get the last bid in…. An auction stops when all bidding is over for a given period of time…. Not when your time is up….. The sellers have all been victims …. Plus the paypal scamming
May 23rd, 2008 at 2:11 pm
We’re behind you 100%
Tim
http://forums.delphiforums.com/boycottebay/start
http://myspace.com/boycottebay
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:37 pm
The link that Jessie posted on 5/22 is a powerful indictment indeed - I hope Craig and Jim’s legal team already have that document.
May 30th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Ebay is no different than the realtors who plug CL with crap just do a search for tropic on any of the latin american sites and get 600-1000 posts. All from the eastren european block realtors. Abuse of CL is a every day thing why not ebay?? Not that I like ebay they are a ruthless bunch of thiefs. So start with ebay then the realtors.
May 31st, 2008 at 1:35 am
Who likes bullies? Nobody.
Ebay should rename its company to Ebully. The bully of the playground can only use fear until a bigger bully comes along.
Craigslist is the nice kid at school that everybody likes, hes easygoing and shares his pogs with you when you loose all of yours to that stupid bully who stole them.
June 2nd, 2008 at 6:52 pm
I was thinking of trying to sell off some of my collectibles on Ebay but now i’m thinking twice. I’ve heard all sorts of bad press about Ebay in the last little while and i’m just very, very cautious about dealing with them. Thus, my friend turned me onto Craigslist which has a much better reputation. And by the looks of things, it will stay that way. With so few employees there isn’t the typical multiple levels of management to wade through and so I figure the site runs well because decisions can be made quick and by the looks of it, the company isn’t solely for the bottom line. Great work guys, and best of luck. I’m a new member and i’m already enjoying my stay. Hopefully this gets sorted out quickly.
June 5th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Kijiji is the name of the Ebay company to rival craigslist.
If you want to make an impact on Ebay and send them a message of “Enough is Enough”, boycott all of their companies. They list the major ones on their site. Skype, Paypal, Kijiji, Halfcom, Stubhub….etc.
Ebay is a big greed-eyed monster!
June 8th, 2008 at 6:58 am
Ebay is a monster! Good luck Craig’s List!
June 12th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
David vs. Goliath …Ebay used to have that down-home vibe but it is terrible now…an extreme example of corporate greed gone unchecked and ruining everything…thank goodness for CL keeping it real…please hang in there we love you !!!
June 18th, 2008 at 5:54 am
Good job Craigslist
You need to stand up for what is right and fight the power that drives greedy companies that all they want is money and do not care at what expense they get more of it.
Go fight ebay greed!!!!!
June 25th, 2008 at 4:39 am
Has eBay filed an answer yet?
July 18th, 2008 at 6:02 am
I would say that it is very unfortunate that Ebay would stoop so low in it’s ethical aproach to conducting its business. Yet it also indicates a sever decline in its management abilities. Only very poor under talented management would resort to such tactics, which for them becomes necessary as thier inabilities to be competive forces thier hand to be dishonest and unethical. Maybe even illegal. (NOW FOR CL, this is no time to open the door by providing poor customer service…CL has very serious quality problems & no one at CL seems to be paying any attention) This is a sign of a very large head if they think that this is no big problem. CL needs to start reading it’s customer feedback & acting upon it quickly. This customer service is the best insurance policy against Ebay or any other outside competition. (WAKE UP CL & TAKE CARE OF YOUR CUSTOMERS)
July 26th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
I think most people now know Ebay will do anything for money.
Good luck Craigslist and may you someday start a timed auction site and give Crookbay some competition.
August 10th, 2008 at 10:24 am
good luck craig’s list. fight that good fight.
avarice and greed, thats what it boils down to in society, is it not…?
oh silly me, i forgot.
control of it all…so they can make it “mo better” just to RUIN it in their
ceaseless quest for profiteering over us all.
yup, good luck.
August 21st, 2008 at 10:36 am
Not a single ukulele on kijiji. Kijiji sucks. Craig you rule!!
August 28th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
I can’t believe how long I’ve been in the dark… I had NO IDEA e-bay had done this to CL.
Someone in a previous post said “shame on them” - I 2nd that!
I use CL so much, and don’t remember life before it. hahaha!
I have been able to sell items, buy items, read the fantastic Best Of postings, search for jobs and just “browse”… all from the comfort and safet of my computer… the best part is that I don’t feel RUSHED into it.
As users of CL we are blessed with the free market it offers, in every sense of that term.
Many users of CL do not have extra $ to give “the man”. We are all trying to save money these days and CL has given us this platform.
I thank everyone who keeps Craigslist running everyday. THANK YOU ALL!
I suggest “craigslist” to everyone who is looking for something, from Infant Formula, a Garage Sale, an Entertainment Center or a Date… “try Craigslist” I say. I believe in the service and I thank you all, again, for being true to the game.
Play Fair ebay.
September 11th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Ebay is a bloated monopoly and should be illegal. That’s all they need to do is control Craigslist, the last bastion of freedom in the online classified world. Ebay already bought out and destroyed it’s virtually only competition, Yahoo auctions USA, then bought paypal and restricted any purchase of adult oriented merchandise with it, just to prove it’s control over morality, like grandma Edra in Idaho cares if Billy Smith in Miami buys the Deep Throat 12 extended edition DVD to pass his lonely days. The Ebay gestapo kicks auctions with generic explanations as to why, and if you try to contact someone other than the sterile “Live chat” help, noone hears you. WHERE’s the COMPETITION??? Are you telling me that a computer program manned by what, 3 or 4 people(???) is netting nearly 2 BILLION a year and NOT ONE computer geek out there has managed to write a program to compete with them?? Something is wrong with this picture! !! Even Bill Gates has Apple. C’mon fella’s, there’s gold in them thar hills! Grow some ^*&#@ and stand up to the giant, and maybe they’ll realize that if we have a *real* choice, sellers won’t put up with their restrictive, communistic crap anymore. (although I’m sure Ebay regularly buys out any potential competion, like yahoo) I’ve obviously had my share of bad experiences with Ebay.
October 5th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Maybe you could do some research on Ebay through google and use some of the Lawsuits that they have already lost against them. Ebay just lost a 63.2 million dollar Lawsuit. I personally feel this is the reason for the sudden hike in Listing fees, final value fees and the 21 day funds hold that Ebay and PayPal (an Ebay owned company) put on sellers money after auctions ends. Ebay has to recover the money somehow. Ebay started out good but now they are manipulators and they hide behind California Law that seems to protect Ebay a lot and not the consumers. It is almost impossible to make profit on Ebay unless a person is stealing the merchandise and can sell it for low low prices. After Ebay takes their fees and Paypal takes theirs that almost east up all the profit.
I would love to see Ebay go under.
October 18th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Folks, Craigslist is eBay’s only competition and they cannot stand that fact and intend to either put Craigslist out of business or take it over and start charging just like eBay. But most people don’t realize that you can send Google the URL for your Craigslist sale page and anyone searching for that item can find it. Just put in your ad that shipping is available (if it is). I have sold stuff all over the USA from Craigslist. eBay knows this and is worried that it will really catch on. Most companies need to make a profit to stay in business, no problem with that. But eBay through surreptitious means has put its competition out of business one way or another. And once eBay had its monopoly, its true colors started to show, pure absolute GREED way beyond profit.
October 20th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
for the people who back ebay… You are whats wrong with online auction sites. If craigslist would go into that arena it would swallow ebay and Maybe make the level field of playing in that area of Online marketing. The only way ebay makes money is selling Advertising like people who sell ads in Mags and papers at least use to. ebay owns operates and uses force If you decide to ever use them as a seller you get screwed! fees, rates, and then the Paypal fees and rates. its not like we need them. Go Craigslist. I think if we could set up a legal fund or if people would petition we can take down ebay and the evil empire the represent!
October 31st, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Kudos to the law firm who put together the complaint. Shame on eBay folks responsible for actions indicated therein. I am sorry that by its actions, eBay has stolen valuable time and money from Craig/Craigslist staff/and the 75 percent share of Craigslist that remains true to the original vision.
It seems that eBay should have to reimburse for that time/money/emotional distress, etc.
Its sad that such bad things happen to good people and such a good organization that has given so much to so many by providing the free community websites
February 11th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
JUST SO NO TO “FEEBAY” EBAY!!!!!! TRUST ME, YOU’LL BE GLAD YOU DID!
February 16th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
I’m THRILLED to see that CL is suing ebay. But here’s another one for those who are reading this - - - I am in search of anyone with information on the following:
I have good reason to believe that Ebay released my account info to a state police agency, WITHOUT A SUBPOENA.
I want to hear from anyone who has been the victim of Ebay’s releasing their account information to police authorities, or any other individual,without a court-ordered subpoena.
I also want information regarding any lawsuit that has been filed against ebay for the unauthorized release of a member’s account information.
FYI - For those of you who seem to think that just because you “agree” to ebay’s user agreement it’s doesn’t make it “legal” just because ebay says so! If they said that “by agreeing to these terms we have the right to cut off your left leg” do you REALLY think they have the legal right to do it?
February 17th, 2009 at 7:01 am
ATTENTION PLEASE…………….
If anyone you know has been the victim of ebay’s releasing their account information to the police or any other agency or individual, without a court-ordered subpoena, PLEASE fire me an email at: legman1947@yahoo.com.
March 4th, 2009 at 12:47 am
Finally someone stood up to ebay. They are just putting rerouted ads to their site becaue they want people to list stuff with them so they get paid from it.
May 5th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
I use CL so much, and don’t remember life before it. hahaha!
June 18th, 2009 at 7:00 am
We are all previous sellers and buyers on ebay. And we have grown to hate ebay due to the litany of practices they’ve pioneered to establish a monopoly and squeeze every drop of money out of their sellers and thus buyers.
Here is a list of ebay’s actions that we are most displeased about…
1.) Just in the past few years, ebay has slowly increased the percentage of their commission for goods sold from a little over 6% to 8.75% of the final ending fee!! A 50% increase in your commission/share of the profit in just a few years is absolutely unacceptable!!
2.) When overstock.com popped up as a competitor to ebay offering lower commission rates, ebay proceeded to buy them out, gut the auction portion of their site, and only then did it start to increase it’s commission rates ever higher.
3.) Ebay has gone to extraordinary lenghts to shut down other competitors like yahoo auctions and amazon auctions, and are now engaged in buying up any online auction and classified listings left over.
Recently, they bought up 27% of Craigslist (a rival) and are currently being sued by Craigslist for using that stock share to undermine Craigslist. Once any remaining competition is done away with, expect to see ebay’s commissions rise even higher. This is the definition of monopolistic anti-competitive tactics.
4.) When paypal first opened to provide people a cheap easy way to pay for online auctions and other purchases, ebay proceeded to buy out the company, and later increased it’s commission rates. Whereas ebay used to allow sellers to enable buyers to pay for items with cashier’s checks, and money orders even just a few months ago, ebay recently changed this policy. Now the only payment method that can be used on ebay is paypal.
Any sellers that tell their buyers they can pay via money order or check if they don’t have a paypal account, get their auction closed by ebay, without a refund of the listing commission fees. This ensures that ebay gets a cut of the price twice, first for the auction’s ending price itself, and then a percentage of the paypal payment as well. Most sellers including I’ve had auctions that ebay ended prematurely, without warning , and without refunding the listing fees because they mentioned that they will accept payment via either paypal or money order from buyers that don’t have a paypal account.
5.) In addition to the continual increases in the commission fees, ebay has taken away sellers right to leave nonpaying buyers and buyers who abuse the auction site bad feedback. Sellers no longer can leave negative feedback to bad buyers. This policy along with the higher commission rates led to many sellers boycotting ebay as well.
Seriously, does ebay’s management not see the direct correlation between the higher commission rates it started charging 2 years ago, with the loss of sellers (and thus buyers) from it’s site?
Yet, in an effort to squeeze every drop of money out of us, ebay has continuously increased the commission fees more and more and each year. And as a result, it has become less and less profitable for all of us. Many ebay stores have had to close. Ebay’s repeated milking of your sellers with higher and higher commissions and more restrictions is only going to continue your sites trend of losing business, and it’s stock’s decline. And as this petition goes to show, we, the previous buyers and sellers on your site, are well aware of what you have been doing to squeeze every drop of profit out of us.
We strongly urge to google or some other competitor to launch an auction site to compete with ebay that is FREE and completely supported by ad revenue to provide relief to the many sellers that have had to close up shop on ebay due to the commissions going up from 6% to 8.75% in just two years. And we urge them to do so before ebay completes it’s current buyout of craigslist.