ETHICAL DILEMMAS IN E-BAYS FINANCIAL PLAN

Ethical Dilemmas in E-Bays Financial Plan

Ethical Dilemmas in E-Bays Financial Plan

Introduction

Auction sites like eBay and exchanges like Commerce One allow people to bid for goods and services with different people potentially paying different prices. By matching uncertain components in demand to aggregated surplus capacity (supply), online auction markets may improve the overall match of demand with supply obtained from long-term contracting. Having a user friendly website that is easy to navigate is essential to the success for any business trying to sell goods or services online. Online auction sites are no exception and it may be even more important that they are user friendly because of the variety of the items that are available there. Ever since the dot.com boom and especially since the dot.com “bomb”, most businesses have used the demise of others to their benefit and have become more customer service oriented. With doing more business via the web, companies have an even tougher job of making its customers feel secure in giving personal information over the internet. Most consumers will choose to use a trusted site to transmit information before they use one that they are not familiar with.

Discussion

Through the security center link eBay notifies users of their partnership with law enforcement. On the Police Blotter it is stated clearly that users will be prosecuted through the law and legal system when intentionally break eBay policies. An outline of various cases and situations where past users have been prosecuted by law enforcement through eBay is highlighted, this list includes: prison time for selling counterfeit goods, 4 years in prison for selling stolen boats, and Cross border investigation for the selling of illegal ivory in the USA.

eBay aims to build the trust of the community through ethical policies. There are certain goods that are restricted from being sold or bought on eBay. Many of these goods are banned due to country and state laws. However, eBay is firm about restricting other items which can “involve the sale of dangerous or sensitive items and are not necessarily prohibited by law” (eBay, 2007) all of which have been restricted due to the numerous request of the community. There is a long list of items that are restricted, which include weapons, firearms and knives.

There are rules and regulations to abide by when using the eBay website. Under the rules for everyone link eBay states that users ...