The Department of Justice has opened a case against eBay to see whether some of its employees used information from Craigslist to build a similar, eBay-branded site. It seems to trace back to a period when eBay was negotiating to buy a stake of Craigslist and requested information on how it expands to new cities.
The incidents include a February 2005 request by Pierre Omidyar, EBay’s chairman and founder, for information about Craigslist’s approach to adding new cities and advance notice of plans to launch new cities, according to the subpoena.
In March 2007, without Craigslist’s knowledge or consent, Brian Levey, EBay’s deputy general counsel, forwarded Craigslist’s confidential financial information from 2004 and 2007 to members of a team starting an EBay online classified ad site, according to the subpoena.
So who will come out the winner? Well, when was the last you used the eBay classifieds?
Stories You Might Like
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
