Post Tagged with: "ebay"

Ebay Front by Ryan Fanshaw (CC BY-ND 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/yb1Zb

The Trouble with the TPP, Day 17: Weak E-commerce Rules

As part of the U.S. effort to drum up support for the TPP, President Barack Obama enlisted the support of eBay, sending an email to 600,000 merchants that claimed that the agreement would help e-commerce and small merchants. That message was repeated by Andrea Stairs, the managing director of eBay Canada, who wrote an op-ed in the Financial Post that similarly pointed to the e-commerce rules, de minimis customs rules, and the benefits for small and medium sized business. The Trouble with the TPP is that a closer look at the text reveals that the benefits from the e-commerce provisions, de minimis rules, and the much-touted SME chapter are practically non-existent.

Read more ›

January 26, 2016 2 comments News

Quebec Court Rejects eBay’s Online Contract Opening Door to Local Lawsuit

Few things are more common on the Internet than the lengthy, largely incomprehensible, online contracts that are often buried at the bottom of web pages with a simple link to “terms”. These agreements sometimes run dozens of pages if printed out and invariably transfer all responsibility and liability to the user, while selecting a jurisdiction clause that is advantageous to the website and inconvenient to most users.

Consumers agree to these contracts dozens of times each day (sometimes proactively by clicking that they agree and most other times by impliedly agreeing to the terms by using the website), but the enforceability of all the terms within the agreement remains an open question.

The law has removed most uncertainty about whether an electronic contract can be enforceable – it can – but ensuring that the form of the contract is valid does not mean that all of its provisions will be enforced by a court.  My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that last month, a Quebec court provided an important reminder that some provisions may not be enforced, as it rejected eBay’s standard terms which require all disputes to be adjudicated in California.

Read more ›

April 4, 2013 10 comments Columns

Quebec Court Says No to eBay’s Online Contract

Appeared in the Toronto Star on March 30, 2013 as Quebec Court Says No To eBay’s Online Contract Few things are more common on the Internet than the lengthy, largely incomprehensible, online contracts that are often buried at the bottom of web pages with a simple link to “terms”. These […]

Read more ›

April 3, 2013 Comments are Disabled Columns Archive

CRA Cracks Down on eBay Seller

The Canada Revenue Agency has fined a B.C. man $68,000 for failing to report sales on eBay.

Read more ›

August 30, 2010 Comments are Disabled News

Submissions on Canada-EU Trade Deal: eBay Canada Warns Against Overbroad IP Provisions

Yesterday I posted on the EU "barrier hymn sheet", a leaked document that discloses EU negotiating strategy on the Canada-EU Trade Agreement IP chapter.  It follows a leaked draft of the EU proposal for the chapter itself, including copyright term extension, anti-circumvention rules, and resale rights.  I also recently obtained a copy of the submission received by the Department of Foreign Affairs as part of its consultation on the proposed agreement.  I'll post highlights from several prominent companies and organizations over the next few days. 

I start with eBay Canada, which clearly has concerns with the proposed agreement and the potential for adverse impacts on Canadian businesses:

Read more ›

January 19, 2010 3 comments News