A California-based man is suing eBay for allegedly using "shill" bidding against him to force up the price of the item he was buying and (by proxy) to increase its fees.
According to The Register:
Glenn Block claims his bid for a Xerox Copy Cartridge was increased from $111 to $112.5 despite the absence of any real competing bid. In another auction Block claims eBay's intervention raised his bid from $75 to $75.55.
Although the sums involved are only small, multiplied by eBay's huge customer base they could add up to millions of dollars.
Since trust is so important in the business model of the online auction giant, the negative publicity attached to the lawsuit will be most unwelcome. In its defence, eBay claims that the plaintiff "completely misunderstands the functionality of the eBay bidding system".
This is most likely the case. Those who misunderstood Google's technology, for example, have in the past failed in their attempts to sue for breach of copyright, besmirching their good names, etc.
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