Noll v. eBay, Inc.

282 F.R.D. 462, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58672, 2012 WL 1413442
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedApril 23, 2012
DocketNo. 5:11-CV-04585 EJD
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 282 F.R.D. 462 (Noll v. eBay, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Noll v. eBay, Inc., 282 F.R.D. 462, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58672, 2012 WL 1413442 (N.D. Cal. 2012).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART DEFENDANTS’ MOTIONS TO DISMISS

EDWARD J. DAVILA, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

Presently before the court are motions to dismiss Plaintiff Richard Noll’s (“Plaintiff’) alleged class action complaint (“Complaint”) brought by Defendants eBay, Inc.; eBay Europe S.A.R.L.; and eBay International AG (“Defendants”). See Docket Item Nos. 24, 40.

II. BACKGROUND

Plaintiff is an eBay seller who alleges that he has listed items for sale on the eBay website since approximately September 2010. See Complaint, Docket Item No. 1, at ¶ 1. Defendant eBay is a Delaware corporation with its principal office in San Jose, California; eBay Europe is located in Luxembourg; and eBay International has its principal office in Bern, Switzerland. Id. at ¶ 2. eBay is an “online marketplace” which connects buyers and sellers by allowing sellers to list items for sale on the eBay website. Id. at ¶ 6. eBay operates three online marketplaces, including eBay Motors and eBay Stores. Id. The eBay marketplace is located at www. ebay.com, eBay Motors’ marketplace is located at www.motors.ebay.com, and eBay Stores’ marketplace is located at www.stores. ebay.com. Id. at ¶ 8.

The relationship between eBay and its sellers is governed by a User Agreement.1 Id. at ¶ 7; see also Dec’l of Keith Verges, Docket Item No. 39-2. The User Agreement provides that sellers will be charged fees for listing items on eBay’s online marketplace based on eBay’s “Fee Schedule,” which is a hyperlink that leads to a set of web pages that describe and quantify applicable fees. Id. at ¶ 8. The basic fee for listing an item for sale on eBay is known as an “Insertion Fee.” Id. at ¶ 11. Additionally, paying “Feature Fees” allows customers to enhance the appearance and prominence of their sales listing. Id. Plaintiff refers to these fees collectively as “Listing Fees.” Id. Sellers are also charged a “Final Value Fee” if an item sells, based on the total cost of the item sold. Id. at n. 1.

Sellers can select from a variety of listing formats when listing an item for sale on eBay. Id. at ¶¶ 9-11. For the “Fixed Price” listing, which is at issue here, sellers list items on eBay for a specified period of time at a specified price. Id. at ¶¶ 9-10. Before September 16, 2008, Fixed Price listings could have a duration of one, three, five, seven, or ten days. Id. at ¶ 10.

On September 16, 2008, eBay revised its Fee Schedule, reducing the Insertion Fee to $.35, and expanding the listing durations available for Fixed Price listings. Id. at ¶ 10; see also Docket Item No. 27-1. On this date, eBay introduced a 30-day listing duration for Fixed Price listings and also introduced the Good ’Til Canceled (“GTC”) feature, which would automatically renew a listing every 30 days until the item sold or the listing was cancelled. Id. Subsequently, eBay charged sellers recurring Listing Fees every 30 days for GTC listings that were not cancelled. Id. at ¶ 11.

[464]*464eBay’s August 2008 Seller Update provided that the GTC feature would be available at “no extra cost.” Id. at ¶ 10; see also Docket Item No. 27-3, at 4. In the section titled “Frequently Asked Questions,” the 2008 Seller Update noted that for GTC listings, “Insertion Fees and all Feature Fees will be charged every 30 days at the time the listing is renewed.” See Docket Item No. 27-3, at 7. Plaintiff contends that the new recurring Listing Fees for GTC listings were not reflected in the eBay User Agreement or the Fee Schedule.2 Plaintiff refers to this time period, starting on September 16, 2008, as the “No Recurring Charge Period.”

Sometime after September 16, 2008,3 eBay revised the User Agreement to reveal some recurring charges for GTC listings and a disclosure was added to the Fee Schedule on December 16, 2008 that noted, “Good ‘Til Cancelled renews automatically every 30 days ____ Insertion fees are charged every 30 day period.” See Docket Item No. 1, at ¶ 11; see Docket Item No. 27-2, at 7. Additionally, the eBay help center web page titled “Selecting a Selling Format” had the same disclosure. See Docket Item No. 27-5, at 2. Plaintiff claims a statement about recurring Insertion Fees was “buried within several other paragraphs [of the eBay.com Fee Schedule] under the heading ‘A note about eBay fees.’ ” See Docket Item No. 1, at ¶ 11. Plaintiff alleges that this statement regarding insertion fees did not appear on the eBay Motors Fee Schedule until 2010. Id. Plaintiff refers to the time period after the Fee Schedule was amended as the “Insertion Fee Only Period.” Plaintiff contends that as of the time of filing, eBay’s Fee Schedules have never revealed that eBay imposes all Listing Fees on a recurring basis every 30 days for GTC listings. Id. at ¶ 12.

Plaintiff became a seller on eBay in September 2010. Id. at ¶ 1. He reviewed and relied on the Fee Schedule in effect in September 2010. Id. at ¶ 15. Plaintiff claims that the monthly invoices he has received from eBay contain only “a monthly total, rather than any details on items and fees.”4 Id.

On September 15, 2011, Plaintiff filed the Complaint on behalf of himself and the putative class. The putative class is defined as “all eBay members ... who, on and after September 16, 2008 (the “Class Period”): (a) placed GTC listings on eBay.com, eBay Stores, or eBay Motors; and (b) were charged at any time after the initial listing: (i) Listing Fees during the No Recurring Charge Period; and/or (ii) any other Fees (excluding Final Value Fees) in excess of Insertion Fees during the applicable Insertion Fee Only Period.” Id. at ¶ 16.

Plaintiff claims that eBay was prohibited from charging any recurring Listing Fees for GTC listings during the “No Recurring Charge Period,” starting on September 16, 2008, because the recurring charges were not revealed in all of the applicable Fee Schedules. Id. at ¶¶ 11-13. Plaintiff claims that after eBay revised its User Agreement and Fee Schedules to reflect recurring Insertion Fees, eBay improperly charged Feature Fees when GTC listings were renewed every 30 days. Id. The Complaint asserts claims for breach of contract, violation of the Unfair Competition Law, violation of the False Advertising Law, violation of the Consumer Legal Remedies Act, common law fraud and deceit, unjust enrichment, and declaratory judgment. Id. at ¶¶ 21-47.

III. LEGAL STANDARD

Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), a complaint may be dismissed if it [465]*465fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. “To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 1949, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (internal quotations omitted).

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Bluebook (online)
282 F.R.D. 462, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58672, 2012 WL 1413442, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/noll-v-ebay-inc-cand-2012.