Craigslist Fires Back at EBay, Alleging Bogus Google Ads

Craigslist has filed its response to eBay’s (EBAY) lawsuit and the company hits back – hard. Craigslist alleges that eBay participated in everything from “unlawful and unfair competition,” to false advertising, business interference and even phishing attacks.

The official list via Craigslist:

“We filed a complaint in California today, charging eBay with unlawful and unfair competition, misappropriation of proprietary information, deceptive passing-off, business interference, false advertising, phishing attacks, free-riding, trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and breaches of fiduciary duty.”

Craigslist wants the Superior Court in San Francisco to enjoin the conduct and order eBay to pay restitution, return its holdings in the company, pay damages and disgorge profits. Chance are that won’t happen, but it’s safe to say that this spat has gone nuclear in short order.

EBay sued Craigslist in April alleging that the company and its owners Craig Newmark and Jim Buckmaster “adopted measures that, among other things, unfairly diluted eBay’s economic interest in Craigslist by more than 10 percent.”

Now its Craigslist’s turn. In its complaint, the company says:

• Since acquiring its interest, however, eBay has engaged in conduct designed to harm Craigslist, its users, and consumers in California and elsewhere.
• In the months leading up to its Kijiji launch in the U.S., eBay planted “the individual responsible for launching and/or operating Kijiji and other eBay classified properties in Europe.” After eBay saw the antitrust risk, the company withdrew him from the board.
• EBay used Craiglist’s trademark to divert traffic to Kijiji.
• EBay tried to lift traffic via bogus Google ads.

• Craigslist portrays itself as a company that was hoodwinked by eBay’s claim that it shared its community values.
• EBay tried to treat Craigslist as a subsidiary even though it didn’t own a majority stake. “eBay even went so far as to request real-time access to Craigslist’s computer systems so that eBay could directly monitor site usage data, giving eBay the same access to proprietary information,” wrote Craigslist. “Mr. Newmark and Mr. Buckmaster were taken aback by eBay’s behavior and feared they had a wolf in sheep’s clothing in their midst.”

The bottom line: Craigslist argues that if eBay isn’t enjoined, it will continue its behavior. What will the court of public opinion say?

Comments

[E**yboycotter:]

There are a great many who are supporting CL in their fight and agree that it's time for e**y to pay the piper. I left e**y as a buyer and seller, and won't return.

2008 May 15 07:50 AM

[bill stenner:]

once again... who sold eBay a nice chunk of their company??? the fact of the matter is that craigslist owners should sue themselves first for either being drunk or not being drunk.

2008 May 15 09:27 AM

[Et tu, Brute!:]

DL elling a portion of the company does not give eBay entitlement to do as it pleases, as it has ALWAYS done in the past to others. When "done wrong" they scream loud and long! Just because you can, doesn't make it right.

It's called integrity.

A reminder: eBay "boycotted" (they used other euphemisms) Google when Google launched GoogleCheckOut, but swiftly came crawling back!

2008 May 15 03:13 PM

[Et tu, Brute!:]

Good grief! Make that CL selling....!

2008 May 15 03:14 PM

[kabulykos:]

Hi Bill, nice uninformed indignation.

To answer your rhetorical question, a former employee sold it to eBay. I don't think "drunk" was the operative there; perhaps just "bitter".

www.craigslist.org/abo...

"Newmark and the Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster said in separate messages posted on the Web that they never imagined a stake in Craigslist ending up in the hands of a publicly-traded company."

2008 May 15 03:15 PM

[FirmGrip:]

Go CRAIGSLIST!!! There are so many of us "little guys" who are so strongly in support of your very noble fight against this giant-turned-tyrant-e*... If there is anything we can do to rally behind you, just say the word. It is so important to keep the internet open to the individual--and STOP this monopolization effort for the sake of $$$$!!! fairshake.freeforums.c...

2008 May 15 09:18 PM

[ThumbsUp:]

Craigslist - We invite you to visit Fair Shake at FreeForums.org. We are in full support of you. e**y believes they can crush whomever they please and put anyone they care to out of business ... we need to show them they CANNOT. They've become the playground bully, but it doesn't mean they are going to crush us all, not if we join together and dish it right back to them. After all, this is AMERICA!

2008 May 15 11:47 PM

[Craigslist ...:]

Craigslist at it again? Sheesh.

Craigslist Proxy

Apr 01 11:49 PM