My jurisdiction is: Mexico/Australia
Hi there,
I hope that I didn't start this tread in a different subject.
After being scammed on ebay I was thinking of a possible test case of claiming that Ebay should be found liable (taking contributory negligence into account) for frauds that occur through their site where a loss is incurred by the victim.
Where a consumer has a loss there is a possible claim in the tort of negligence against ebay for allowing a fraudulent seller to join (especially where the seller provides false details and Ebay has failed to put in checks to counteract this problem).
Although ebay includes a disclaimer "YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT EBAY IS NOT INVOLVED IN THE ACTUAL TRANSACTION BETWEEN BUYERS AND SELLERS. AS A RESULT, EBAY HAS NO CONTROL OVER THE QUALITY, SAFETY OR LEGALITY OF ITEMS OR CONTENT POSTED BY MEMBERS ON OUR SITE, THE TRUTH OR ACCURACY OF LISTINGS, THE ABILITY OF SELLERS TO SELL ITEMS OR THE ABILITY OF BUYERS TO BUY ITEMS. WE CANNOT ENSURE AND DO NOT GUARANTEE THAT A MEMBER OR BROWSER OF OUR SITE WILL ACTUALLY COMPLETE A TRANSACTION OR ACT LAWFULLY IN USING OUR SITE" I feel this could be dealt with using equtable estoppel - given the fact that ebay earns a commission on transactions in the same way as an auctioneer does and ostensibly it is an auction site. It also purports to have buyer protections and provides advice as to how to avoid being scammed - it follows that if you follow all this advice and you still get scammed the courts of equity may have jurisdiction.
What do you think?
Hari
Hi there,
I hope that I didn't start this tread in a different subject.
After being scammed on ebay I was thinking of a possible test case of claiming that Ebay should be found liable (taking contributory negligence into account) for frauds that occur through their site where a loss is incurred by the victim.
Where a consumer has a loss there is a possible claim in the tort of negligence against ebay for allowing a fraudulent seller to join (especially where the seller provides false details and Ebay has failed to put in checks to counteract this problem).
Although ebay includes a disclaimer "YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT EBAY IS NOT INVOLVED IN THE ACTUAL TRANSACTION BETWEEN BUYERS AND SELLERS. AS A RESULT, EBAY HAS NO CONTROL OVER THE QUALITY, SAFETY OR LEGALITY OF ITEMS OR CONTENT POSTED BY MEMBERS ON OUR SITE, THE TRUTH OR ACCURACY OF LISTINGS, THE ABILITY OF SELLERS TO SELL ITEMS OR THE ABILITY OF BUYERS TO BUY ITEMS. WE CANNOT ENSURE AND DO NOT GUARANTEE THAT A MEMBER OR BROWSER OF OUR SITE WILL ACTUALLY COMPLETE A TRANSACTION OR ACT LAWFULLY IN USING OUR SITE" I feel this could be dealt with using equtable estoppel - given the fact that ebay earns a commission on transactions in the same way as an auctioneer does and ostensibly it is an auction site. It also purports to have buyer protections and provides advice as to how to avoid being scammed - it follows that if you follow all this advice and you still get scammed the courts of equity may have jurisdiction.
What do you think?
Hari