There isn't just an argument for this being anti-competitive or going against the Unsolicited Goods & Services Act 1975. For any business that transacts less than $250,000/year through Trade Me, this infringes on rights under the Fair Trading Act, specifically Unfair Contract Terms: 1. The change creates a significant imbalance in rights/obligations, causes detriment financially and otherwise (eg loss of flexibility, delays with receiving payments), it is not reasonably necessary to protect the legitimate interests of the party advantaged by the terms. 2. FTA prohibits unconscionable conduc...

I have been told today that the following has been filed with the Serious Fraud Office and the Commerce Commission: Kia ora, I am writing to raise a serious concern regarding what appears to be a persistent failure to investigate potentially anti-competitive and unfair practices by Trade Me Group. Despite multiple reports made to the Commerce Commission over time by various parties, it appears no meaningful investigation has taken place. The issues of concern are as follows: Broken dispute resolution system – Trade Me’s internal dispute process frequently results in unfair outcomes, such ...

Steve - there are people who have filed with the Commerce Commission and they acknowledge submissions. I don't know what their threshold is for opening an investigation, but I imagine the more people file, the more likely they will look into this. It is not only in-trade sellers or TM members who can file with them - friends and family can too. With the way the message board is set up, this thread is no longer on the front page, I wonder if it would be helpful to open a regular new post with the link to this thread, so that it remains on the front page of the message board? My original comm...

Forward the email from Trade Me to the Commerce Commission: PaymentsTeam@comcom.govt.nz Include the relevant law below, as well as anything else you feel is applicable in terms of impact to you personally: There is an argument that this move creates a restraint in trade, is anti-competitive and constitutes an unsolicited service. In addition, for any business that transacts less than $250,000/year through Trade Me, this infringes on rights under the Fair Trading Act, specifically Unfair Contract Terms: 1. The change creates a significant imbalance in rights/obligations, causes detriment fin...

The Business Desk Article: https://businessdesk.co.nz/article/retail/trade-me-payment-options-changes-anger-professional-sellers

I know of another journalist looking into this as well. Trade Me are saying they are confident that they are in compliance with the Fair Trading Act, that this is a product change which is permitted under their T&Cs and they have been upfront about the changes. No mention of things like this causing a constraint in trade, unfair contract terms, an unsolicited service - or it being anti-competitive, which there already is precedence for in Australia, with the AU version of ComCom blocking eBay from taking away bank payments and mandating Paypal, when they still owned Paypal. Re-posting the b...

Template to use to email to the Commerce Commission at PaymentsTeam@comcom.govt.nz - include this when forwarding the original email sent by TM advising change to payment forms: Dear ComCom, From Monday 3 November, new listings from in-trade sellers on Trade Me will exclusively be forced to use Ping, with cash and Afterpay as optional additions. Listings from this time on will have PING automatically added and bank transfer as a payment option will be removed. Payment via Ping will have a transaction fee of 2.19% deducted from the total amount the buyer pays (including shipping). This manda...

Hi Flossy, unfortunately I do not have access to the full article either.

I am aware that the following news outlets have been contacted today: The Herald News Room RNZ The Post Stuff 1News

Jeffrey - that's the one.