eBay Class Action Lawsuit Settlement over "Buy It Now" - You May Qualify...

[jeffweico]

eBay has settled a class action lawsuit regarding the use of the "Buy it Now" feature. I wouldn't suggest filing a claim on a stealth account, but I wanted to put this out there for anyone who may be interested:

"Class Members of the eBay settlement include all eBay sellers in the United States who paid listing fees to place a “Buy It Now” listing on eBay’s websites during the period from July 30, 2008 and Sept. 10, 2015, and whose item was subsequently de-listed when the “Buy It Now” button was selected by a prospective buyer before the end of the designated listing period, and who were not ultimately paid by the prospective buyer, and whose listing fees were not refunded by eBay."

You can read more about this here: eBay Buy It Now™ Class Action Settlement

[yankee]

That is interesting.
I have accounts that handled 10s of thousands of unpaid items cases over the years.
It may be interesting to look into it.

[yankee]

Ok, so the most the claim can be for is $5-15

[bluegrass1]

Originally Posted by yankee

Ok, so the most the claim can be for is $5-15

sounds about right I think someone shoud sue when they remove a listing without informing you have sales, then a week later u realize there is money sitting in your account waiting to have the item shipped out then u have cases opend on pp because they didn't get their item, stupid the way eb handles a "your listing has been removed "

[JamesNorth101]

Shame its a total of $5/15 not $5/15 per listing! Really limits eBays liability

[yankee]

Originally Posted by JamesNorth101

Shame its a total of $5/15 not $5/15 per listing! Really limits eBays liability

Maximum payout is 1.2 million.

[JamesNorth101]

Makes a bit of a joke of the entire thing really.

[yankee]

ebay says the claim is a joke but settled for 1.2 million instead of litigation.

[ovidiu]

Yeah. Personally, way more interested in the lawsuit the lady is pursuing over eBay's money back guarantee/seller protection.

[jeffweico]

I think that class actions are a good thing, otherwise it would be impossible to hold companies accountable for anything. What I DO NOT like about them is that the settlements always end up being minimal for the people affected by it. Like in a lawsuit over baby formula, every participant in the suit got $5 in coupons as their settlement and the lawyers got $6,000,000. That is simply not fair. But at least companies have some incentive to stay honest.

I can also say I do not like it when companies get sued over minor technicalities where nobody was actually hurt, but lawyers see it as a windfall and sue the companies anyway. That just gives the industry a bad name.

But if there were no such thing as class actions, how could a company ever be held accountable for anything? If 10,000 consumers were cheated out of $25 each and had to pursue claims separately, then companies would have a license to steal.

[jakobrockz]

LOL my mother just received a check for $3.26 from eBay from this

I got .32 and .06 from the settlement. Literally felt like a millionaire. -_-

[HelpNeeded!]

I got 5 checks the other day.. not sure if this was it or not, for some reason I thought it had to do with featured listings but I may be mistaken. Total was about $40 so I was pleasantly surprised, I thought it was a scam at first.

[MM78]

Originally Posted by Nephilim

I got .32 and .06 from the settlement. Literally felt like a millionaire. -_-

Great Googly Moogly! That's retirement money right there.

[vogeltron]

The email I got said that it will be automatically applied to my various accounts. Knock on wood but most of my stealth's have been going strong since 08, 09.

[yaBeh8ater]

i got 2 checks in the mail because of this. one for .10 and one for a penny. i proceeded to trash em.

[MM78]

Originally Posted by yaBeh8ater

i got 2 checks in the mail because of this. one for .10 and one for a penny. i proceeded to trash em.

Funny though, it probably cost more in paper, postage to send those 2 checks out...lol.

[phaz0rz]

Originally Posted by MM78

Funny though, it probably cost more in paper, postage to send those 2 checks out...lol.

Haha it serves them right. I think it's great to see eBay held accountable by USA's "buyer protection program." Even if nobody is going to get more than $15.

On the other side though money doesn't magically appear, and eBay now has a $1.2m + postage + paper cost + lawyer fees hole to fill. They make their money by charging seller's fees, so sellers will end up paying for this lawsuit.