Author: Karen Weise / Source: New York Times
SEATTLE — EBay claims Amazon has illegally tried to lure top sellers off its marketplace by exploiting its internal messaging system.
The e-commerce site said it was tipped off to the situation last month by an eBay seller who had been contacted by an Amazon representative.
An early investigation by eBay found at least 50 Amazon representatives had sent hundreds of solicitation messages over the last several years. The Amazon contacts came from multiple countries, including the United States and Britain.EBay sent a cease-and-desist letter to Amazon on Monday outlining its claims. The Amazon representatives, eBay said, seemed to know that their use of its messaging system violated the company’s terms of service.
“Ebay does scan for key terms and they don’t exactly like us poking around,” one message read. “Honestly the easiest way to communicate about this would be on the phone.” Other messages involved weird phrasings that seemed intended to evade detection, such as avoiding using the word…
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