eBay users have been curious to find out who submitted an anonymous filing to the Australian regulatory agency that is reviewing eBay’s plan to move to a PayPal only option.
The submission says eBay should not be allowed to exclude competing payment methods. An AuctionBytes reader found a 38-page PDF filing that appears to have come from Google.
A Word document titled,”ACCC Submission by Google re eBay Public 2.DOC,” reveals Google probably did the filing. The submission had been removed from the ACCC site on Wednesday, likely due to privacy reasons.
eBay does not allow sellers to accept Google’s Checkout service as part of its Safe Payments policy. Google is worried that going to a PayPal only policy in Australia would hurt its market share.
The ACCC submission reads,” eBay’s real purpose, or one of eBay’s substantial purposes, is to substantially lessen competition in the Market for Online Payment Processing Services, by preventing or hindering competitors of PayPal from competing effectively against PayPal in that market.”
It was almost a year ago that conflicts between the two companies became well known. eBay was not pleased when Google planned a “Boston Tea Party” event that would take place at the same time as eBay’s Live user conference. Google wanted to promote its Checkout payment service, but canceled the party after eBay complained. eBay later pulled it advertising from Google for a number of weeks, claiming it was a planned test.
The Australian agency will rule on eBay’s policy in June before it goes into effect.
