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EBay Lawsuit Opened Up to All Faked-Out Sports Fans

The ruling Friday by Judge Linda B. Quinn means that all eBay users who feel they were duped into buying bogus baseball cards or athletes' photos with fake signatures can line up to get in on a suit originally launched in April by seven consumers, who claim to have been steered toward phony memorabilia online.

The period covered by the class action stretches back to 1995, when eBay - which adopted its current moniker in 1997 - was known as Auction Web, the lawsuit says.

Backed by the San Diego law firm of Krause & Kalfayan, the lawsuit claims that eBay contravened California state laws that require all sellers of autographed memorabilia to provide legitimate certificates of authenticity. In addition, it claims that eBay was negligent by not doing enough to protect consumers from purveyors of fraudulent merchandise, even though the sale of fake memorabilia was known to be a problem for a number of years.

The lawsuit filed by Krause & Kalfayan attorney James Krause followed a round-up of counterfeit sports memorabilia that the FBI and the US Attorney's Office called "Operation Bullpen."

The complaint says that investigation uncovered "a nationwide criminal racketeering enterprise responsible for the distribution of tens of millions of dollars worth of forged collectibles." Some of those caught up in the investigation sold their wares on eBay, the complaint alleges.

The seven individuals originally named as complainants in the class-action suit said they paid out a combined total of less than $3,500 for what turned out to be baseball bats and balls, photos and collectable sports cards with faked signatures of sports stars. However, the complaint implies that a large share of the fraudulent business uncovered by Operation Bullpen took place on eBay.

Jay Monahan, a staff lawyer at eBay and associate general counsel for intellectual property, told Newsbytes recently that the company sees the suit filed by Krause & Kalfayan as similar to one it saw dismissed in San Francisco County earlier this month, when a judge there determined that the auction service wasn't responsible for the sale of bootlegged audio recordings.

In that case, Judge Stuart Pollak said eBay was immune from liability under what was a state law claim because the federal Communications Decency Act (CDA) says providers of interactive computer services can't be considered publishers of information provided by users of the services.

Monahan said that the San Francisco case, which involved illegally obtained Grateful Dead tunes, did not involve a federal copyright infringement claim, but was brought under the California Business and Professions Code. That law prohibits any "unlawful, unfair or fraudulent business act or practice."

The sports memorabilia suit cites the same code, along with a number of other state laws it claims eBay violated.

However, said Monahan, "We continue to believe that the claims in that case, which are state law claims, are similarly barred by the (CDA)."

EBay is at www.ebay.com. Krause & Kalfayan can be found online at www.krausekalfayan.com. Reported by Newsbytes, www.newsbytes.com.

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