eBay's Paypal : Balancing Marketplace and Regulatory Regimes

This article analyses the reasons why eBay's April 2008 attempt to force its Members to only use PayPal for their auction transactions failed to gain approval from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. It describes and analyzes the complex interplay between eBay's marketplace, Australian Competition law and Australian Payments Systems law to determine why eBay was unsuccessful when it had been so successful in the past in imposing changes on its Members. It provides a guide to Members in countries outside of Australia on one method to challenge eBay's dominance and a salutary lesson on the complexity of Internet regulation.This article has been uploaded to SSRN after a 3-month publication delay agreed with the journal publisher