eBay (EBAY) quietly dropped its plan to require Australian sellers to use PayPal or cash only for transactions, according to the WSJ. The company notified sellers in April that they were required to offer the auction site's in-house electronic payment system PayPal as a payment option, and said it would soon require them to conduct business in cash or via PayPal only.
This attracted the attention of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which said the move at least appeared to be anti-competitive, not to mention the ire of Australia's well-organized selling community. eBay says it dropped the plan after listening to its customers. Skeptics suggest (quite reasonably), that eBay was trying to see how forcing PayPal down its customers throats worked before trying it in othe countries -- a "today Australia, tomorrow the world" strategy -- but eBay says that's not true. It's just something its Aussie team requested, it says.
See Also:
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