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EBay seller faces £50,000 fine

Paul Barrett, a regular seller on the eBay website, today faces a possible £50,000 fine after 10 counts of trade and business regulation breaches were confirmed in court. The Trading Standards Office took the trader to court after he was found to have used bogus eBay accounts to increase the bidding on various products which he was selling.

Known as "shill bidding" many traders may not be aware that this is actually illegal and eBay, together with trading standards, would appear to making an example of Paul Barrett in an attempt to put off any other traders thinking of taking similar action. It is unclear exactly how both eBay and trading standards became aware of the situation but ultimately he was found guilty, after admitting his guilt, of 10 breaches of the regulations which each attract a potential £5,000 fine.

Mr Barrett will be sentenced at a later date but eBay and trading standards very much hope this will send out a new message of intent to traders on the website looking to inflate their prices at the expense of other consumers. When you consider that eBay is one of the most popular trading exchanges in the world we can only guess how much of this particular activity may be going on at this very moment.

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