eBay Canada said it would hand over more data to Canada's tax agency after receiving a court-authorized requirement from the Canada Revenue Agency. The company will release the account information and sales data of Canadian resident eBay members who meet the following criteria:
- Sales of more than $20,000 and at least 24 sales transactions in any of the calendar years 2006, 2007 or 2008, (irrespective of membership in eBay's PowerSeller program);
- or, Sales of more than $100,000 in any of the calendar years 2006, 2007 or 2008, regardless of the number of sales transactions.
eBay said it was only required to release sales information for the year(s) in which a seller met the above sales thresholds.
The member information that will be released for 2006, 2007 and/or 2008 includes: full name, user id, mailing address, billing address, telephone number, fax number, email address, and the selling prices (high bids) of the items.
The September 2009 request followed a similar request made by the Canada Revenue Agency; in November 2008, after a lengthy legal battle, eBay was required to reveal the account information of members who held PowerSeller status in 2004 and 2005.
eBay Canada said it strenuously objected to the "violation of our members' privacy," but said it was obliged to comply with the court-ordered requests. eBay said it was alerting all members affected by the court order prior to disclosing their account information to the Canada Revenue Agency.
Link to eBay Canada announcement
