Bidding on eBay Live Actions is very safe. All live auctions are run by reputable international auction houses, which are carefully screened by eBay before being authorized to sell to you.
One bidder, who complained that an auction she participated in was spoiled by shill bids, pointed to the above statement in support of her legal claim for damages against eBay. You wouldn't think at first glance that eBay's declaration that its auctions are "safe" would be entitled to immunity under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. And you would be right, at least according to a recent opinion by Judge Marilyn Hall Patel in Mazur v. eBay Inc., No. 07-3967 (N.D. Cal., March 4, 2008).
eBay argued unsuccessfully that this case was like Gentry v. eBay, 99 Cal. App.4th 816 (2002), and Doe v. SexSearch.com, 502 F. Supp.2d 719 (N.D. Ohio 2007), a pair of cases in which Web sites turned user-submitted information into CDA-immunized assurances to users. In Gentry, the user rating information was derived from third-party submissions to eBay; in Doe, the Web site's assertion that its users were over 18 years old as also derived from user-generated data (users checked a box indicating they were at least 18 years old). The present case is distinguishable, Judge Patel said, because eBay's safety assurances were made by eBay alone and were not based on any information submitted by users.
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