The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) today said it would shortly hold meetings with eBay subsidiary PayPal over the online auction giant's attempt to force sellers to offer PayPal as a payment option.
In April, eBay notified the competition regulator that it intended to force Australians to make online payments only through PayPal. eBay reversed the decision shortly afterwards following pressure from the regulator and other groups. However, since that time eBay has required sellers to offer PayPal as one option for payment by buyers.
"Over recent months, the board has received a number of comments on the no-surcharge and no-steering rules that apply to payments using the PayPal system, as well as the mandated acceptance of PayPal on eBay's auction site," the bank's payment systems board wrote in a statement today.
The statement stemmed from resolutions from a recent meeting of the board on 15 August.
The bank said where such rules had existed in other payment systems, it had encouraged their removal, on the grounds that they could diminish competition in the payments system.
"Consistent with this, the Bank will shortly be holding discussions with PayPal with a view to seeking the removal of these rules," the RBA said.
Congratulations to those who lobbied the RBA. This is really good news. It's about time PayPal was given a slap for treating consumers with contempt.
But there is still a lot more to do to make eBay/PayPal accountable to consumers. PayPal still refuses to sign the EFT Code of Conduct.