While most of this site is about how eBay works day and night, weekdays and weekends and through holidays to screw over sellers, its important to mention that for all of the ways eBay hurts its sellers, it also hurts buyers. eBay has undertaken several tactics at various points that put buyers at a disadvantage or otherwise serves to keep them doing business with eBay.

Bidder’s Edge:

One of the most well-known examples of eBay acting to make sure bidders are deprived of choices was eBay’s decision to sue Bidder’s Edge, Inc. on December 10, 1999. The case was eBay Inc. v. Bidder’s Edge Inc., filed in , the case number was 5:99-CV-21200 RMW.

Bidder’s Edge was a comparative shopping site that allowed you to find the lowest price for a given item across multiple auction sites. It helped consumers find better deals on sites other than eBay if they existed. Of course, eBay did not like this because it took business away from their site, so they first threatened to sue and then actually sued with a variety of claims, including computer trespass. Bidder’s Edge rebelled in the beginning. The case did not go well for Bidder’s Edge from the start. At one point, Bidder’s Edge filed a counterclaim against eBay on anti-trust grounds. In the end, the courts sided with eBay because eBay’s user agreement prohibits access to its site by automated means. Some outlets reported this as a “settlement” between the sites. but it was nothing of the sort.

Bidder’s Edge later ceased operations due in no small part to the eBay lawsuit and discontinued its service on February 21st, 2001. “Unfortunately, business conditions are not what we hoped they would be. The auction landscape is changing so fast and auction sites we hoped would be players went out of business.” said Bidder’s Edge spokesperson Brian Oren told E-Commerce Times. Put more bluntly: eBay is a big child that will stop at nothing to keep its dominance.

The end result was the users of eBay lost and eBay’s profits won.