In Smith v. eBay Inc. et al, Northern District of California Judge Jeffrey White denied E-bay’s motion to remove the plaintiffs’ tying claims from a putative class action accusing eBay of precluding sellers from using alternatives to PayPal.
The plaintiffs allege that eBay effectively precluded them from using Google’s checkout system, which charges lower merchant fees, as an alternative to Paypal. Although the court described the case as close, it found sufficient allegations that the tie impacted competition in the on-line payment market.