Musician and activist Bob Geldof urged eBay users to cause havoc with auctions for Live 8 tickets in order to pressure the site to change its policy and remove the listings. On Monday, eBay UK had announced it would permit the sale of LIVE 8 concert tickets on eBay.co.uk and would make a donation to the LIVE 8 charity "at least equivalent to the fees we collect from the sale of LIVE 8 tickets." It stated in the announcement that it didn't want to profit from the sale of the tickets, and said it "believes it is a fundamental right for someone to be able to sell something that is theirs whether they paid for it or won it in a competition."
On Tuesday, eBay reversed its decision and is banning the ticket sales. "As a result of this clear signal from the Community we have decided to prohibit the resale of LIVE 8 tickets on the site. Although the resale of tickets is not illegal, we think that this is absolutely the right thing to do. We have listened to the views you expressed on the discussion boards and in the many emails you have sent to us. We shall be working over the next few hours to remove all LIVE 8 ticket listings from the site."
The post on the eBay UK message board was made by Doug McCallum, Managing Director, eBay (UK) Ltd., "on behalf of the whole eBay.co.uk team." LIVE 8 concerts are being organized to press world leaders to fight African poverty at next month's G8 summit.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4090774.stm
http://www2.ebay.com/aw/uk/200506141934002.html
