A Pennsylvania man is suing online auction kings eBay, charging the site forces up prices when some high bidders raise maximum bids to guard against last-minute offers.
Glenn Block, leading a suit he hopes becomes a class-action suit, accuses eBay of raising his own bid on an item from $111 to $112.50, after he answered an e-mail from eBay that named him the highest bidder for the item and warned he might be outbid if he didn’t raise his maximum bid.
What seemed to tweak Block especially was that he believes, according to his suit, that he could have won the auction in question at $111 and that eBay forced him to overpay by $1.50.
For its part, eBay says Block misunderstands the bidding system, according to company spokesman Hani Durzy, who told reporters eBay only tells winning bidders they could be outbid when they hit their preset maxiumum bid, and that increasing a maximum bid is not mandatory at all. He added that eBay only increases a bid when bidders raise their maximums and the prior top bid was between bidding increments—and eBay discloses that on its Website.
But the attorney for the plaintiffs in the suit, Reed Kathrein, accuses eBay of shill bidding—which usually refers to bidders working with sellers to ramp up prices of items artificially, items such bidders don’t even plan to buy—and forcing bidders to bid against themselves.
Kathrein said the alleged practices have meant unlawful profits, and that required restitution might exceed tens of millions accounting for the previous four years.
