

This rather conclusory final argument did not address the plaintiff’s complaint that he was deprived of the opportunity to receive other bids because of the “shadow” cast by the withdrawn bid.
#Retract bid ebay free
§ 230, allowed Internet service providers like E-Bay to avoid liability for its failure to police bid withdrawal – an obligation to prevent improper bid retractions, the court held, would be “overly burdensome and detrimental to the free flow of information on the Internet.”įinally, the court concluded that the plaintiff had suffered no damages because the bids were non-binding to begin with.

Moreover, the court found, the federal Communications Decency Act, 47 U.S.C. Buyers just pick one of the reasons, even if not true, so they can retract their bid. Ebay provides a list of accepted reasons for retracting, i.e., placed incorrect amount, which then buyer is supposed to enter the amount they really meant to bid. The withdrawal of the high bid “cast a shadow” over the item, causing other potential buyers to decline to bid on the item.Į-Bay responded, and the court agreed, that other parts of the user agreement implied that the bid retraction policy exempted non-binding bids, specifically the language that the non-binding bid policy was a “separate policy” wherein there was no bid retraction policy. eBay has always allowed buyers to retract their bid. The seller contended that E-Bay was obligated to prevent the high bidder’s withdrawal because E-Bay’s bid retraction policy did not specifically exempt non-binding bids. Non-binding bids, according to E-Bay’s user agreement, are “merely a means of introducing potential sellers to interested potential buyers.” Normally, under the bid retraction policy set forth in E-Bay’s user agreement, users are not permitted to retract bids. Real estate and securities may be listed on E-Bay’s auction website, but due to laws governing brokers of those items, only “non-binding bids” may be made for them. No further bids were received once the reserve price became public.

After learning of the reserve price, the high bidder withdrew his bid on the grounds that he had not read the auction listing carefully. But in order to avoid an abuse ding, ebay requires them to re-enter the correct bid amount, something that is rarely done. The seller received four bids for the property, the first three for approximately $2.5 million and the fourth for the reserve price. There are very few valid (per ebay) reasons for retracting a bid and most bidders lie by saying they entered the wrong amount. The seller had listed a vacation resort on E-Bay’s auction website with a low minimum bid and a reserve price of nearly $ 4 million. was absolved of liability for fraud, common law fraud, breach of covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and breach of contract in New Jersey state court in a suit filed by one of its sellers.
