COURTCASE RE: ONLINE AUCTION FEEDBACK...

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Court: eBay's off the hook over feedback
Last modified: February 9, 2004, 4:46 PM PST
By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Be careful when reading feedback left in online auctions: eBay and similar Web sites are not required to remove information that's false or even libelous, a court has decided.

A California appeals court ruled last week that eBay cannot be forced to remove allegedly defamatory information posted to the popular auction site by users.

A 1996 federal law shields eBay and similar "interactive computer services," the appeals court said on Thursday. "Plaintiff is, in effect, asking for what, in established libel law, would be akin to a retraction. However, (the law) precludes liability in the first place."




This legal dispute started as a typical online tiff. eBay user Roger Grace bought some items from eBay seller Tim Neeley. Grace left a negative comment in Neeley's feedback area, which can be viewed by all visitors and is intended to create a kind of reputation for participants. Neeley retaliated by typing in a note in Grace's profile: "complaint: should be banned from ebay!!!! dishonest all the way!!!!"

After eBay refused to remove the negative feedback from Grace's profile, Grace sued the San Jose, Calif., auction giant for allegedly publishing false and defamatory information about him, in violation of California libel laws.

The federal law cited in the ruling was enacted as part of the Communications Decency Act, itself part of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. It says that "no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."

In a court decision from August 2003, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said that the law protected Web site operators from being sued for fabricated profiles on online dating sites.








Lil' Stinker's Opinion

mateomasfeo

I sure he sued Neely at the same time. Any outcome reported on that?






Mateomasfeo

"I am what I am!" - Popeye

reb8600

Here is another example of someone thinking they could take the easy way to make some money on a law suit. Would be interesting to know just what he did to get the negative feedback. If this is any indication of the type of person he his then he probably deserved the negative feedback. He should have expected something like this if he left negetive feedback for Neely. He could have left a comment in response to the negetive feedback. What kind of a world is this becoming when all someone wants to do is sue anymore.

Guncontrol-The ability to hit what your aiming at.

n/a

English??...

Point of the post being...Careful what you put in feedback...could get your butt sued....

still trying to figure out what you said Mateomasfeo...YOu sued him? grace sued him? who sued whom?...(think its whom *LOL




Lil' Stinker's Opinion

offeror

eBay has always held a strict hands-off position about feedback unless it breaks their own rules somehow, and it hardly ever does. I have never looked sympathetically on "revenge" feedback given against somebody who performed their end of a transaction properly. Giving critical feedback is not mis-performance if it's true feedback, so it's not a valid excuse to "neg" for no more mature a reason than "I got you last."

Besides, a feedback rating is cumulative and while I've never "been negged," I've observed that it's easy to overcome a couple of crank feedbacks with a 99% positive rating. But if you've got, say, 36 out of even a thousand, something is probably wrong with the seller's process.

Why these guys came to name-calling and suing, one can only imagine. Tie two cats' tails together and expect fireworks, I guess.... [:D] But sellers do share a responsibility equal to buyers, and some expect buyers to toe a tougher line than they are willing to do themselves. That's a lead-headed attitude guaranteed to attract negative feedback. eBay actually does boot a lot of accounts, sellers and buyers, if people bother to complain in writing to SafeHarbor. But with millions of accounts, usually they won't notice a problem until it's brought to their attention.

I guess in our "litigious society" I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often, silly though it may be.

T. Jefferson: "[When doing Constitutional interpretation], let us [go] back to the time when [it] was adopted. [Rather than] invent a meaning [let us] conform to the probable one in which it was passed."

NRA Life Member

RugerNiner

Is this the Roger Grace in the Story? [:D] [:D] [8D]
http://www.thepamperedprisoner.com/rgracefl.htm


Remember...Terrorist are attacking Civilians; Not the Government. Protect Yourself!
http://www.awbansunset.com/

Pearyw

I got my first negative feedback recently on Ebay when I let my wife use my account to buy a Coach purse from a good size outfit. She paid for it with Paypal and then they emailed her that they didn't actually have the one she had bought. They offered to sell her one in a different color that she didn't want, so she asked for her money back. She got her refund and gave them a neutral feedback. I thought the whole thing was a fraud and was a bait and swithch scheme. The company that was selling the purse then emailed complaining that her feedback was hurting their rating and that they could have gotten her the purse she wanted if she had waited a few days. They never mentioned this in their earlier emails. The next thing I noticed, they had given me a negative rating and claimed that we had refused to complete the deal because we wouldn't wait a couple of days for delivery. I complained to ebay, who did nothing, and responded to their feedback saying that they were lying about what had happened. I then got an email from the company stating that they would get my wife the purse at the sale price and pay the shipping cost if we would remove the neutral feedback. I figured that that had given me a bad feedback in hopes that I would change their rating if they changed mine. My wife told them that she would not do business with them which suited me. I over 400 good ratings and I only buy on ebay, so I figured that it wouldn't hurt me. It showed me that you really have to watch who you deal with.

kuhlewulf

I sell a set of blueprints for 1911 and AR-15 lowers on ebay for $1.99. Everyone else sells the same for $5. They are emailed directly to the customers same day in most cases. The attached files used to be rather large and I have had several returned emails due to mailbox size restrictions or box is full type stuff. This jerk once waited a month to complain, and said I never kept my end of the deal. I showed him the returned emails and sent them again, and again they were returned. He started writing me nastygrams and threatened me! Then tried to blackmail me with feedback also. I forwarded his email with the threat to his local PD, and I guess he finally got the emailed files. Moron. I would expect more maturity from a 56 year old man. Anyway, I've never left negative feedback for ANYONE on eBay. Lots of idiots on there. Gotta watch for them.

James

Do your troops train with live cobras? ROYAL THAI ARMY DOES!

Iconoclast

After five years of on line transactions, I finally received a less than positive (neutral) on fleaBay - purely in retaliation for a neutral I had left in which I noted the item had not been correctly described, but not worth fighting over. Takes all kinds. I've also noted a trend by sellers (no offense, Merc) not to leave feedback until the buyer has posted his. Seems to me that if the buyer pays promptly, provided shipping data, etc., then holding the feedback for ransom is bogus. I figure I don't get feedback for 40 - 50% of the sales I make, for a variety of reasons. But I also feel it is my obligation as the seller to post feedback regardless. If things go down the tubes afterwards, one can always post a rebuttal (as I did on the neutral feedback I received).

But BR is right, keep the feedback factual! I'm sure we've all seen more than enough instances of inflammatory language which would be more appropriate for third graders squabbling over who hit who first. The worst feedback I ever left was for a buyer who didn't read the description and jumped on a BIN price almost as soon as I posted the auction in his greed to grab a bargain before I noticed I'd mis-priced something. He was all * out of shape that I would not sell him a fifty round box of collector ammo for the retail price of a single round. I simply noted the circumstances and the fact his emails had been extraordinarily abusive. Then he threatened me with a neg . . . to which I replied I had never received one and coming from him it would be a compliment, which I would note in the rebuttal while directing readers to my original comment. He didn't have the stones to try it.

"There is nothing lower than the human race - except the French." (Mark Twain)