User Agreement
THE FOLLOWING DESCRIBES THE TERMS ON WHICH EBAY OFFERS YOU ACCESS TO
OUR SERVICES.
Welcome to eBay Inc.'s User Agreement. This Agreement describes the
terms and conditions applicable to your use of our services at
http://www.ebay.com/ and our general principles of our International
affiliates. If you have any questions, please refer to our User Agreement
Frequently Asked Questions at (http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/f-agreement.html)
or our User Agreement Revision Frequently Asked Questions at (http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/uarevision1-faq.html).
We may amend this Agreement at any time by posting the amended terms
on our site. Except as stated below, all amended terms shall automatically
be effective 30 days after they are initially posted on our site. This
Agreement may not be otherwise amended except in a writing signed by you
and eBay Inc. This agreement is effective on March 21, 2001 for new
registering users, and is otherwise effective on May 15th, 2001 for all
users registered prior to March 21, 2001.
- Membership Eligibility.
Our services are available only to
individuals who can form legally binding contracts under applicable law.
Without limiting the foregoing, our services are not available to minors
or to temporarily or indefinitely suspended eBay members. If you do not
qualify, please do not use our services. Further, your eBay account
(including feedback) and User Id may not be transferred or sold to
another party.
- Fees and Services.
Joining and bidding on items at eBay is
free. Our Fees and Credits Policy is available (at http://pages.ebay.com/help/sellerguide/selling-fees.html)
and is incorporated by reference. We may change our Fees and Credits
Policy and the fees for our services from time to time. Our changes to
the policy are effective after we provide you with at least fourteen
(14) days' notice of the changes by posting the changes on the
announcements board. However, we may choose to temporarily change our
Fees and Credits Policy and the fees for our services for promotional
events (for example, free listing days) and such changes are effective
when we post the temporary promotional event on the announcements board.
When you list an item you have an opportunity to review and accept the
fees that you will be charged for the use of our listing services. We
may in our sole discretion change some or all of our services at any
time. In the event we introduce a new service, the fees for that service
are effective at the launch of the service. Unless otherwise stated, all
fees are quoted in U.S. Dollars. You are responsible for paying all fees
associated with using our service and our website and all applicable
taxes.
- eBay is Only a Venue.
3.1 Online Auctions. Although
we are commonly referred to as an online auction web site, it is
important to realize that we are not a traditional "auctioneer".
Instead, our site acts as a venue to allow anyone to offer, sell, and
buy just about anything, at anytime, from anywhere, in a variety of
formats, including a fixed price format and an auction-style format
commonly referred to as an "online auction". We are not involved in the
actual transaction between buyers and sellers. As a result, we have no
control over the quality, safety or legality of the items advertised,
the truth or accuracy of the listings, the ability of sellers to sell
items or the ability of buyers to buy items. We cannot ensure that a
buyer or seller will actually complete a transaction. 3.2 Safe
Trading. Because user authentication on the Internet is difficult,
eBay cannot and does not confirm each user's purported identity. Thus,
we have established a user-initiated feedback system to help you
evaluate with whom you are dealing. We also encourage you to communicate
directly with potential trading partners through the tools available on
our Site. You may also wish to consider using a third party escrow
service or services that provide additional user verification. See our
Buying and Selling Tools page (at http://pages.ebay.com/services/buyandsell/index.html).
3.3 Release. Because we are not involved in the actual
transaction between buyers and sellers, in the event that you have a
dispute with one or more users, you release eBay (and our officers,
directors, agents, subsidiaries and employees) from claims, demands and
damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and
unknown, suspected and unsuspected, disclosed and undisclosed, arising
out of or in any way connected with such disputes. If you are a
California resident, you waive California Civil Code §1542, which says:
"A general release does not extend to claims which the creditor does not
know or suspect to exist in his favor at the time of executing the
release, which if known by him must have materially affected his
settlement with the debtor." 3.4 Information Control. We do
not control the information provided by other users which is made
available through our system. You may find other user's information to
be offensive, harmful, inaccurate, or deceptive. Please use caution,
common sense, and practice safe trading when using our site. Please note
that there are also risks of dealing with underage persons or people
acting under false pretense. Additionally, there may also be risks
dealing with international trade and foreign nationals.
- Bidding and Buying.
You are obligated to
complete the transaction with the seller if you purchase an item through
one of our fixed price formats or are the highest bidder as described
below. If you are the highest bidder at the end of an auction (meeting
the applicable minimum bid or reserve requirements) and your bid is
accepted by the seller, you are obligated to complete the transaction
with the seller, unless the item is listed in a category under the
Non-Binding Bid Policy (at http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-nbb.html)
or the transaction is prohibited by law or by this Agreement. By bidding
on an item you agree to be bound by the conditions of sale included in
the item's description so long as those conditions of sale are not in
violation of this Agreement or unlawful. Bids are not retractable except
in exceptional circumstances such as when the seller materially changes
the item's description after you bid, a clear typographical error is
made, or you cannot authenticate the seller's identity. If you choose to
bid on mature audience items or items that are restricted to adult use,
you are certifying that you have the legal right to purchase such items.
- Listing and Selling.
5.1 Listing Description. You
must be legally able to sell the item(s) you list for sale on our Site.
You must describe your item and all terms of sale on the listing page of
our Site. Your listings may only include text descriptions, graphics,
pictures and other content relevant to the sale of that item. All listed
items must be listed in an appropriate category. All Dutch auction items
must be identical. At any one time you may not promote identical items
in more than ten (10) listings (whether Dutch or Regular auction style)
on our site. 5.2 Binding Bids. Except for items listed in a
category under the Non-binding Bid Policy, if you receive at least one
bid at or above your stated minimum price (or in the case of reserve
auctions, at or above the reserve price), you are obligated to complete
the transaction with the highest bidder upon the auction's completion,
unless there is an exceptional circumstance, such as: (a) the buyer
fails to meet the terms of your listing (such as payment method), or (b)
you cannot authenticate the buyer's identity. 5.3 Fraud.
Without limiting any other remedies, eBay may suspend or terminate your
account if we suspect that you (by conviction, settlement, insurance or
escrow investigation, or otherwise) have engaged in fraudulent activity
in connection with our site. 5.4 VeRO Program. eBay's
Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) program works to ensure that listed items
do not infringe upon the copyright, trademark or other rights of third
parties. VeRO program participants and other rights owners can report
infringing items, and have such items removed. VeRO program participants
and other rights owners may have limited access to some of your
personally identifiable information as described in the Privacy Policy
(at http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-priv.html).
5.5 Manipulation. Neither you, bidders nor sellers may
manipulate the price of any item nor may you interfere with other user's
listings or auctions.
- Your Information.
6.1 Definition. "Your Information"
is defined as any information you provide to us or other users in the
registration, bidding or listing process, in any public message area
(including the Café or the feedback area) or through any email feature.
You are solely responsible for Your Information, and we act as a passive
conduit for your online distribution and publication of Your
Information. 6.2 Restrictions. Your Information (or any items
listed): (a) shall not be false, inaccurate or misleading; (b) shall not
be fraudulent or involve the sale of counterfeit or stolen items; (c)
shall not infringe any third party's copyright, patent, trademark, trade
secret or other proprietary rights or rights of publicity or privacy;
(d) shall not violate any law, statute, ordinance or regulation
(including, but not limited to, those governing export control, consumer
protection, unfair competition, antidiscrimination or false
advertising); (e) shall not be defamatory, trade libelous, unlawfully
threatening or unlawfully harassing; (f) shall not be obscene or contain
child pornography or, if otherwise adult in nature or harmful to minors,
shall be posted only in the Mature Audiences section and shall be
distributed only to people legally permitted to receive such content;
(g) shall not contain any viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs,
cancelbots, easter eggs or other computer programming routines that may
damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or
expropriate any system, data or personal information; (h) shall not
create liability for us or cause us to lose (in whole or in part) the
services of our ISPs or other suppliers; and (i) shall not link directly
or indirectly to or include descriptions of goods or services that: (aa)
are prohibited under this Agreement; (bb) are identical to other items
you have up for auction but are priced lower than your item's reserve or
minimum bid amount; (cc) are concurrently listed for sale on a web site
other than eBay's (this does not prevent linking to or advertising an
eBay item from another web site); or (dd) you do not have a right to
link to or include. Furthermore, you may not list any item on our site
(or consummate any transaction that was initiated using our service)
that, by paying to us the listing fee or the final value fee, could
cause us to violate any applicable law, statute, ordinance or
regulation, or that violates our current Prohibited, Questionable and
Infringing Items (at http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-items.html)
list. 6.3 License. Solely to enable eBay to use the
information you supply us with, so that we are not violating any rights
you might have in that information, you agree to grant us a
non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free,
sublicensable (through multiple tiers) right to exercise the copyright,
publicity, and database rights (but no other rights) you have in Your
Information, in any media now known or not currently known, with respect
to Your Information. eBay will only use Your Information in accordance
with our Privacy Policy.
- Access and Interference.
Our web site contains robot
exclusion headers and you agree that you will not use any robot, spider,
other automatic device, or manual process to monitor or copy our web
pages or the content contained herein without our prior expressed
written permission. You agree that you will not use any device, software
or routine to bypass our robot exclusion headers, or to interfere or
attempt to interfere with the proper working of the eBay site or any
auction being conducted on our site. You agree that you will not take
any action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load
on our infrastructure. Much of the information on our site is updated on
a real time basis and is proprietary or is licensed to eBay by our users
or third parties. You agree that you will not copy, reproduce, alter,
modify, create derivative works, or publicly display any content (except
for Your Information) from our website without the prior expressed
written permission of eBay or the appropriate third party.
- Feedback.
You may not take any actions that may undermine
the integrity of the feedback system. If you earn a net feedback rating
of -4 (minus four), your membership will be suspended, and you will be
unable to list or bid. 8.1 Export. You acknowledge that your
feedback consists of comments left by other users and a composite
feedback number compiled by eBay, and that the composite number without
the comments does not convey your full user profile. Because feedback
ratings are not designed for any purpose other than for facilitating
trading between eBay users, you agree that you shall not market or
export your eBay feedback rating in any venue other than an eBay
operated website. 8.2 Import. We do not provide the technical
ability to allow you to import feedback from other websites to eBay
because a composite number, without the corresponding feedback does not
reflect your true online reputation within our community.
- Breach.
Without limiting other remedies, we may immediately
issue a warning, temporarily suspend, indefinitely suspend or terminate
your membership and refuse to provide our services to you: (a) if you
breach this Agreement or the documents it incorporates by reference; (b)
if we are unable to verify or authenticate any information you provide
to us; or (c) if we believe that your actions may cause legal liability
for you, our users or us.
- Privacy.
We use third parties to verify and certify our
privacy principles. These organizations are dedicated to building trust
in the Internet by having member organizations such as eBay disclose
information practices. Our policy on privacy is held to high standards
by these independent third party organizations. Our current Privacy
Policy is available (at http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-priv.html).
- No Warranty.
WE AND OUR SUPPLIERS PROVIDE OUR WEB SITE AND
SERVICES "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OR CONDITION, EXPRESS, IMPLIED
OR STATUTORY. WE AND OUR SUPPLIERS SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF TITLE, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. Some states do not allow the disclaimer of implied
warranties, so the foregoing disclaimer may not apply to you. This
warranty gives you specific legal rights and you may also have other
legal rights that vary from state to state.
- Liability Limit.
IN NO EVENT SHALL WE OR OUR SUPPLIERS BE
LIABLE FOR LOST PROFITS OR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH OUR SITE, OUR SERVICES OR
THIS AGREEMENT (HOWEVER ARISING, INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE).
OUR LIABILITY, AND THE LIABILITY OF OUR SUPPLIERS, TO YOU OR ANY
THIRD PARTIES IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCE IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF (A) THE
AMOUNT OF FEES YOU PAY TO US IN THE 12 MONTHS PRIOR TO THE ACTION GIVING
RISE TO LIABILITY, AND (B) $100. Some States do not allow the exclusion
or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the above
limitation or exclusion may not apply to you.
- Indemnity.
You agree to indemnify and hold us and (as
applicable) our parent, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, directors,
agents, and employees, harmless from any claim or demand, including
reasonable attorneys' fees, made by any third party due to or arising
out of your breach of this Agreement or the documents it incorporates by
reference, or your violation of any law or the rights of a third party.
- Legal Compliance.
You shall comply with all applicable
domestic and international laws, statutes, ordinances and regulations
regarding your use of our service and your bidding on, listing,
purchase, solicitation of offers to purchase, and sale of items.
- No Agency.
You and eBay are independent contractors, and no
agency, partnership, joint venture, employee-employer or
franchiser-franchisee relationship is intended or created by this
Agreement.
- Notices.
Except as explicitly stated otherwise, any notices
shall be given by postal mail to eBay Inc. Attn: Legal Department 2145
Hamilton Ave., San Jose, CA 95125 (in the case of eBay) or to the email
address you provide to eBay during the registration process (in your
case). Notice shall be deemed given 24 hours after email is sent, unless
the sending party is notified that the email address is invalid.
Alternatively, we may give you notice by certified mail, postage prepaid
and return receipt requested, to the address provided to eBay during the
registration process. In such case, notice shall be deemed given 3 days
after the date of mailing.
- Arbitration.
Any legal controversy or legal claim arising
out of or relating to this Agreement or our services, excluding legal
action taken by eBay to collect our fees and/or recover damages for, or
obtain an injunction relating to, the eBay site operations, intellectual
property, and our services, shall be settled by binding arbitration in
accordance with the commercial arbitration rules of the American
Arbitration Association. Any such controversy or claim shall be
arbitrated on an individual basis, and shall not be consolidated in any
arbitration with any claim or controversy of any other party. The
arbitration shall be conducted in San Jose, California, and judgment on
the arbitration award may be entered into any court having jurisdiction
thereof. Either you or eBay may seek any interim or preliminary relief
from a court of competent jurisdiction in San Jose, California necessary
to protect the rights or property of you or eBay pending the completion
of arbitration. Should either party file an action contrary to this
provision, the other party may recover attorneys fees and costs up to
$1000.00.
- Additional Terms.
The following documents are incorporated
by reference: 18.1 Our Privacy Policy is available at http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-priv.html.
We may change our Privacy Policy from time to time and our changes are
effective after we provide you with at least thirty (30) days' notice of
the changes by posting the changes on the announcements board and
sending email to users who select such notification. 18.2 Our
Outage Policy is available at http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-extn.html.
We may change our Outage Policy from time to time and our changes are
effective after we provide you with notice of the changes by posting the
changes on the announcements board. 18.3 Our Board Usage
Policy is available at http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-board.html.
We may change the Board Usage Policy from time to time and our changes
are effective after we provide you with notice of the changes by posting
the changes on the announcements board. 18.4 Our Non-Binding
Bid Policy is available at http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-nbb.html.
We may change the Non-Binding Bid Policy from time to time and our
changes are effective after we provide you with notice of the changes by
posting the changes on the announcements board. 18.5 Our
Listing Policy is available at http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-list.html.
We may change the Listing Policy from time to time and our changes are
effective after we provide you with notice of the changes by posting the
changes on the announcements board. 18.6 Our SafeHarbor
Policy is available at http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/investigates.html.
We may change the SafeHarbor Policy from time to time and our changes
are effective after we provide you with notice of the changes by posting
the changes on the announcements board. 18.7 Our Prohibited,
Questionable & Infringing Item Policy is available at http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-items.html.
We may change the Prohibited, Questionable & Infringing Item Policy
from time to time and our changes are effective after we provide you
with notice of the changes by posting the changes on the announcements
board. 18.8 Our Non-Paying Bidder Policy is available at http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/npb.html.
We may change the Non-Paying Bidder Policy from time to time and our
changes are effective after we provide you with notice of the changes by
posting the changes on the announcements board.
- General.
This Agreement shall be governed in all respects by
the laws of the State of California as such laws are applied to
agreements entered into and to be performed entirely within California
between California residents. We do not guarantee continuous,
uninterrupted or secure access to our services, and operation of our
site may be interfered with by numerous factors outside of our control.
If any provision of this Agreement is held to be invalid or
unenforceable, such provision shall be struck and the remaining
provisions shall be enforced. You agree that this Agreement and all
incorporated agreements may be automatically assigned by eBay, in our
sole discretion, to a third party in the event of a merger or
acquisition. Headings are for reference purposes only and in no way
define, limit, construe or describe the scope or extent of such section.
Our failure to act with respect to a breach by you or others does not
waive our right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches.
This Agreement sets forth the entire understanding and agreement between
us with respect to the subject matter hereof. Sections 2 (Fees and
Services) with respect to fees owed for our services, 3.3 (Release), 6.3
(License), 7 (Access and Interference), 12 (Liability Limit), 13
(Indemnity) and 17 (Arbitration) shall survive any termination or
expiration of this Agreement.
- Disclosures.
The services hereunder are offered by eBay
Inc., located at 2145 Hamilton Ave., San Jose, CA 95125. If you are a
California resident, you may have this same information emailed to you
by sending a letter to the foregoing address with your email address and
a request for this information. Fees for our services are described at
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sellerguide/selling-fees.html.
Commercially available parental control protections (such as computer
hardware, software, or filtering services) are commercially available that
may assist you in limiting access to material that is harmful to minors.
If you are interested in learning more about these protections,
information is available at http://www.worldvillage.com/wv/school/html/control.htm
or other analogous sites providing information on such protections. The
preceding link is provided for information purposes only, and is not
intended as an endorsement of WorldVillage.com's Internet site, services,
or policies. eBay is not affiliated with WorldVillage.com.
Disputes between you and eBay regarding our services may be reported to
Customer Support by going to http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/select-support.html.
We encourage you to report all user-to-user disputes to your local law
enforcement, postmaster general, or a certified mediation or arbitration
entity.
Additionally, you may report complaints to the Complaint Assistance
Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the Department of Consumer
Affairs may be contacted in writing at 400 R Street, Sacramento, CA 95814,
or by telephone at (800) 952-5210. |