eBay’s bid for a PayPal monopoly is on the nose

I missed this piece from APC about a public meeting which eBay held in Melbourne to try to calm eBay sellers unhappy at its bid to force all eBay buyers to use PayPal (the payment service which, completely coincidentally, eBay happens to own). Angus Kidman did a great, colourful writeup of the night.
Sounds like the company didn’t do the greatest job of selling their plan to the audience, and they fell down when answering the crucial question of why eBay wants to remove the choice of payment options from users of the auction site:

“We’re not allowing people to offer unsafe choices, just like in this democracy you can’t go out and buy heroin on the streets.”

I really hope the ACCC puts a halt to eBay’s plan. Consumers should have a choice, and the fact that they’re trying to mandate that buyers use PayPal, a company they own, makes it even more repugnant.

eBay boss: Not offering PayPal is like buying heroin [APC]