Team-BHP - US Govt. sues eBay for selling aftermarket emission defeat devices

According to a media report, the US Government has sued eBay for violating the Clean Air Act and other environmental laws by selling harmful products, including emission defeat devices for automobiles.

As per the complaint filed in the Brooklyn, New York federal court, eBay could face a fine amounting to billions of dollars, including $5,580 for each Clean Air Act violation. The Department of Justice stated that eBay has illegally sold around 343,011 units of aftermarket devices which help vehicles generate more power and improve fuel efficiency, but also evade emissions controls.

US Govt. sues eBay for selling aftermarket emission defeat devices-ebay1.jpg

The complaint stated, "eBay has the power, the authority, and the resources to stop the sale of these illegal, harmful products on its website. It has chosen not to; instead, it has chosen to engage in these illegal transactions."

The online marketplace though has also released a statement, calling the lawsuit "entirely unprecedented" and willing to defend itself vigorously.

Source: Reuters

Link to Team-BHP news

If Sarcasm or Irony (not sure who will show up first) had a face! It would show itself outside all the Gun Stores across each Zip code in USA.

From Google
There are 16,586 Gun & Ammunition Stores businesses in the US as of 2023, an increase of 3.2% from 2022.

"eBay has the power, the authority, and the resources to stop the sale of these illegal, harmful products on its website. It has chosen not to".

My understanding was that eBay is just an aggregator for people to come and buy/sell. It's not eBay themselves selling the product but acting as a platform to allow the transaction to happen. It's the same as facebook marketplace i guess.

Can someone more knowledgeable please tell me if it's possible to implement a site wide ban to prevent a certain product being bought/sold? I ask this because it's easy to put the right product image with different description and wrong product image with right description to trick the algorithm into not flagging your product.

My understanding is that such products were advertised and sold (just like in India) for off road use. Federal law enforcement has gone on a suspiciously extensive hunt after people modifying their emissions equipment, trawling social media, forums etc, forcing owners to scrap their trucks, even while legal challenges are under way
https://www.thedrive.com/news/diesel...ions-equipment

This might be more of the same. While these may be legal, if the government has decided to screw you, there is nothing much you can do. Especially with things like retrospectively applied legislations.

Quote:

Originally Posted by where_to_next (Post 5635811)

Nice move. I wish the Indian government did that to Amazon/Flipkart/etc to stop them from selling that seatbelt alarm clips.

Indian government imposed a ban on it, and currently, it's not available for sale on those websites. However, it can still be found on a few third-party sites, and no fines were imposed on these companies.