eBay U.S. Paypal plan
Published May 11th, 2008
Speculation about an eBay plan to force buyers and sellers in Australia to use PayPal, its online payment system, being extended to the United States prompted a denial from the company on Friday.
“In the U.S., we are not mulling, planning, or otherwise seriously considering a move to PayPal-only,” wrote spokesman Usher Lieberman on the company’s eBay Ink blog. “There are U.S. market-specific reasons why PayPal-only is something we simply cannot do in the U.S.”
In Australia, the new policy, which is due to start next month, has upset users who don’t want their payment options limited and prompted complaints about its impact on competition from bankers. They have filed submissions to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to try to stop the changes. The impact on eBay’s 5 million registered users there, according to the Australian Bankers Commission, will be that “competition will be restricted, innovation and development will be constrained, new entry will be discouraged and PayPal will be able to increase fees and charges to eBay users.”
