As reported back in April (see New eBay Legal Development in the UK – Seller to be Fined up to £50,000 for Shill Bidding), an eBay seller in the UK, Paul Barrett, plead guilty to shill bidding his own auctions. Yesterday, the judge in the case ordered Barrett to pay £5,000 in fines and court costs and to do 250 hours of community service.
According to an article by The Independent (see Man fined for bidding on his own online auctions), Barrett would list items on eBay under one ID or “eBay identity”, and bid on those same items with another account under his control. Items listed for auction and part of the shill bid activity included two Mercedes, a Land Rover, some electronics devices and other material.
Per the report, Barrett also left feedback for himself – one example cited for a vacuum cleaner, stating: “Thanks very much. Item is great”.
A complaint from a customer is what led to the further revelations and court action.
Per The Independent article, Judge Peter Benson stated in the sentencing:
Had you had previous convictions for dishonesty the result would have been a custodial sentence. If you had profited to a substantial extent to sentence could well have been a custodial sentence.
More from The Independent:
The judge said the practice of shill bidding echoed the long standing practice in “traditional auctions” of “taking bids from the wall”.
This is where auctioneers would take fictional bids to push a price up.
He said: “That doesn’t lend it any air of respectability. It is an obviously dishonest practice whichever way one looks at it.”
Judge Benson also said eBay relied on users being able to trust each other.
He said “This sort of conduct strikes at the heart of that trust which is vital if this very, very useful commercial medium is to continue to operate successfully.”
The full article from The Independent can be found by clicking below:
Two related articles have been published on AuctionBytes:
Past articles published by the Original Prop Blog related to other legal disputes and court proceedings can be found via the portal below:
Jason DeBord