EBay sues Amazon for "hiring salespeople"

EBay has filed a lawsuit against Amazon, accusing the US retail giant of using illegal tactics to recruit sellers.

Representatives of Amazon abused eBay's internal email system to contact sellers, which constitutes a violation of the rules of the market.

Amazon declined to comment on the case, which follows a letter from eBay asking for the end of the activity.

He had previously stated that he was investigating the claims.

According to the lawsuit filed in Santa Clara County, California, eBay, Amazon representatives have created eBay accounts to solicit vendors, often sending messages a few minutes after creating their profile.

The activity dates back to at least 2015 and involved dozens of Amazon representatives, each of whom sent hundreds of emails.

EBay was alerted to the problem a few weeks ago by a seller and asked Amazon to stop.

"Unscrupulous conduct"

The complaint indicates that the messages show that Amazon knew that its practices violated the rules of eBay use.

Amazon's practices "seem to be part of a broader set of aggressive and unscrupulous behaviors" of the Seattle Society.

EBay, which is also the owner of the StubHub ticket resale website, is asking for damages to be awarded in a jury trial.

The Californian company, founded in 1995, was a pioneer in online shopping and developed a platform to connect buyers to sellers.

It now has more than 175 million active buyers, with sales of nearly $ 90 billion via the platform last year,

But its luster has faded in the face of increased competition, especially since Amazon's dominance is attracting more merchants on its own platform.

Last year, more than half of the items sold by Amazon came from third-party merchants.

Amazon estimates that, overall, about half of the retail dollars spent online in the United States.