Default judgement set aside in safe payment case

A judge has set aside the default judgment against eBay in the safe payments case in the US. This means that the case will now follow normal legal procedure rather than being decided without a trial.

The plaintiffs have offered to settle the suit with no monetary damages if eBay reverse their policy and allow payment methods other than PayPal.

That seems a bizaare offer as eBay.com’s already states that sellers must offer one or more options of electronic payment including either PayPal, ProPay, Moneybookers, Paymate or Credit/debit card processed through the seller’s Internet merchant account. The payment methods that are prohibited are cash, cheques, money orders and bank transfer.

Safe payments (although in the past that’s meant PayPal) are understandably desirable for eBay, but can a lawsuit be successful when eBay already allow a choice and sellers aren’t restricted to PayPal only and indeed don’t even have to offer PayPal so long as they offer one of the accepted alternatives?