(8 July 2008 – Australia) Online auction site, eBay, has decided to drop its plans to force Australian customers to use PayPal when making payments.eBay announced that it has withdrawn its notification to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) about removing other payment methods.
The online auction site has planned to remove all payment methods other than PayPal. Instead eBay will continue to allow all existing payment methods on their Australian website, with PayPal listed as a mandatory option for payment.
The reason given by eBay was to stop any further confusion and disruption among the eBay Community.
eBay applied to the ACCC for an exemption from the Trade Practices Act to stop vendors using other payments methods, such as direct bank deposits, cheques and money orders, on its online auction site.
When the news came out earlier this year, The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), as well as the Australian Bankers Association (ABA) announced plans to lodge submissions to the ACCC to block the move.
While eBay claimed the proposed move was for increased security, challengers to the move claimed that it was anti-competitive.