Do Internet Auctions and eBay Encourage Sales Of Stolen Goods?

[mandy]

In April, dozens of unauthorized carbon fiber forks bearing the Ritchey name and logo began appearing on eBay. What surprised Steve Parke, Ritchey’s general manager, nearly as much as seeing counterfeit Ritchey product on the auction web site was how unconcerned eBay was about the fact.

“We had a vendor that we were qualifying to make a carbon fiber road fork, a WCS model, from one of our Taiwanese sources. The vendor was incapable of making the fork such that it would pass fatigue testing. And so we had to give the vendor a no-go. We went to another vendor and he was able to execute the design flawlessly...

“Well, vendor No. 1 had a number of forks that they had made in trying to pass this testing threshold, plus they had the molds there to make more. So that vendor and some other people cranked out a hundred forks and sold them on eBay. He shipped them from Taiwan directly to eBay customers...

full article: http://www.bicycleretailer.com/bicyclere...1002765124

[xppman]

It's NOT ebay's fault.

Remember ebay is just a venue. 

I sure hope some good legal team can dis-spell that JAV status
or MAKE ebay live up to it in all areas like... oh I don't know trying to dictate
what forms of payment one can advertise on their listing for one example. 

[iron_chick]

My mother has a friend, a physician, who was permanently disabled - brain damage - when the fork on his bike cracked when he was riding down a hill.

eBay's legal department needs to rethink their position of REFUSING to allow the notification of buyers who purchased defective forks of the hazards they are facing.

[bargainbloodhound]

“Maybe ‘enables’ theft would be a better way of describing it. Although they do more than many to prevent illegal behavior, eBay does make it more possible than before for crooks to anonymously sell stolen product to an international marketplace.

Much more possible.  eBay is now the first stop when someone wants to fence stolen merchandise.  The anonymity of being able to hide behind a madeup unverified user ID in a virtual marketplace is definitely more desirable to thieves than trying to sell stolen goods face-to-face from a physical location.

“Basically [the eBay] guys are a legitimized fence in the marketplace. They don’t behave responsibly. A retailer couldn’t sell stolen pedals and get away with it. They are an electronic flea market, and they make provisions for this to happen,” Parke said.

Also true, but the "a retailer couldn't get away with it" comparison applies even more to counterfeits.  Macy's or Bloomingdale's couldn't get away with stocking their shelves with a mix of 70% knockoff/30% authentic designer goods, but eBay's "just a venue" crappola allows it to get away with it every friggin' day of the year.

eBay's legal department needs to rethink their position of REFUSING to allow the notification of buyers who purchased defective forks of the hazards they are facing.

It'll never happen without legislation.  Corporate lawyers were born without hearts or morals.

[xppman]

It'll never happen without legislation.  Corporate lawyers were born without hearts or morals.

You can say that again. Oh wait... I just did...