Sarah Mirando  |  November 6, 2013

Category: Consumer News

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eBay Featured Plus class action settlementEBay Inc. has agreed to pay a $4.75 million class action settlement that will resolve allegations the online auction site breached its contract by selling and promoting an advertising visibility service that did not work as promised.

In January 2012, plaintiff Custom LED LLC filed a class action lawsuit claiming that eBay’s Featured Plus! upgrade, an optional service that was supposed to increase the visibility of its users’ listings, did not deliver the promised results.

According to the class action lawsuit, eBay’s Featured Plus! service would place listings in a prominent “Featured Items” section of certain search results pages. The plaintiff argued that, despite paying $39.95 for the upgrade, their listings received no priority treatment.

The plaintiff said that eBay did not list Featured Plus! items at the top of the first page of search results that contained more than 50 items, and instead placed the listing at the top of a subsequent page. Second, he argued that the Featured Plus! system only worked in search results that were sorted by “Best Match” and did not function in searches organized by location, price or time. Finally, he argued that the Featured Plus! system only worked for items listed in eBay Motors categories if the search was initiated from eBay Motors.

EBay has denied any wrongdoing but agreed to settle the class action lawsuit to avoid the uncertainty and expense of trial.

Under the terms of the proposed eBay class action settlement, Class Members will include all U.S. eBay customers who listed items for sale on the eBay website with the Feature Plus! upgrade and incurred fees for the upgrade from January 23, 2008 until the present.

The parties agreed to split the $4.75 million settlement fund between two different time periods because “these two time periods involve significantly different facts and potential claims,” according to the proposed class action settlement agreement. The first period will include Class Members who paid for the Feature Plus! upgrade between January 23, 2008 and September 28, 2009. The second period will include Class Members who bought the upgrade after September 28, 2009.

Because their claims are allegedly weaker, Class Members who purchased the Feature Plus! upgrade during the first time period will receive a comparatively smaller award than those who purchased the upgrade during the later time period. If the eBay Featured Plus class action settlement is approved, eligible Class Members with active eBay accounts will not have to take any action to receive funds, which will be credited directly to their accounts. Class Members can also request to receive their compensation via check if they prefer.

A hearing has been scheduled for November 20, 20.13, during which U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar will determine whether to grant preliminary approval to the class action settlement. Top Class Actions will update readers when claim filing instructions become available. Keep checking www.TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free weekly e-newsletter below to receive updates on this class action settlement and other class action lawsuit news.

Custom LED is represented by Keith R. Verges, Parker D. Young and Raymond E. Walker of Figari & Davenport LLP and by Shawn T. Leuthold.

The eBay Featured Plus Class Action Lawsuit is Custom LED LLC v. eBay Inc., et al., Case No. 12-cv-00350, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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12 thoughts onEBay Agrees to $4.75M Featured Plus Class Action Settlement

  1. denyse reasinger says:

    I was a seller for 18 years with as a transaction score of 9000+. One morning I woke up to find my account deleted. I called eBay right away thinking they had made a mistake but they explained to me that because I had 18 “bad” transactions in the past 18 years (making that 1 “bad transaction” a year that they were suspending my account permanently. The transactions they were referring to were: Late shipments and lost items. I explained to eBay that the late shipments were due to my elderly mother having brain surgery and needing more care then expected ( I have documentation) and they said that I should have printed the shipping labels right away even though I was not shipping right away which seemed dishonest to me. The few lost items were due to an office remodel and I was actually still searching for the items and contacted the buyers to let them know. The buyers were fine, eBay was not. Any other negative feedback was beyond my control as I always refunded or excepted returns. Sometimes there is no pleasing a customer. My feedback score was hardly ever under a 98%. Most of the time it was at 100%. I manage a non-profit and I would never treat my staff or volunteers the way that eBay treated me. I would at least give them a chance or a warning. eBay threw me away like a piece of trash. I cried for days. I felt that I had lost one of my best friends. I lost something that I looked forward to everyday for 18 years and I lost my extra income since my non-profit job does not pay much. I am still so surprised that eBay would treat me so unfairly as I worked really hard to keep my seller account in good standing in every way. The few errors that I made were explainable, especially working under stressful conditions and to expect perfection during such a hard time is just wrong. I tried and tried to explain this to eBay and although they are trained over there to be very nice on the phone they have never even tried to understand my situation. It just does not seem fair. Hopefully something will be done so that others will not have to suffer the way that I did. Thank you for allowing me to share my story.

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