eBay's Seller-Poaching Allegations Against Amazon Get Dismissed By Arbitration Panel

A court-appointed arbitration panel has dismissed eBay Inc’s EBAY lawsuits against Amazon Inc AMZN. The former had sought legal recourse against Jeff Bezos’ e-commerce company, seeking damages over claims of poaching seller from its platform.

What Happened: eBay approached Santa Clara County in October 2018 and the District Court for the Northern District of California in August 2019 with litigations against Amazon and some of its Managers respectively. 

In the petitions, eBay claimed that Amazon sales representatives created accounts in eBay with the intent to solicit eBay vendors and “inflict harm”, CNN reports.

Although eBay convinced the panel that some of Amazon’s employees did create accounts and access its in-house messaging system, the panel said that the company “did not prove it suffered damages as a result,” as per CNN.

The arbitration panel's ruling is yet to be confirmed by the court.

Why Does It Matter: Ebay’s Civil RICO, or Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, lawsuits aimed to target the Seatle-based company’s vendor recruitment methods. The dismissal comes as a reprieve for the trillion-dollar tech behemoth.

Bezos’ e-commerce platform is facing a barrage of regulatory woes in the U.S. and Europe, from antitrust probes by the Federal Trade Commission in the U.S. to investigations related to abuse of competition rules in the European Union.

Price Action: AMZN stock closed at $3,118.06, 0.63% higher, whereas EBAY closed 1.26% higher at $50.53.