Ebay Suing Digital Point Founder

[Dale King]

Digital Point founder, Shawn Hogan, as well as Todd Dunning, Brian Dunning and their companies are being sued by eBay for alleged "cookie stuffing" with
intent to defraud eBay of commission fees.

The auction company is seeking "exemplary and punitive" damages and demanding a trial by jury.

For those of you who don't know what cookie stuffing is, it means setting a cookie without a user generated click. Basically, it steals commissions from affiliates who generate clicks honestly. However, like with almost everything else in life, there are both proponents and oponents of cookie stuffing. Some affiliates have argued that cookie stuffing isn't illegal. Others say it's unethical.

With this legal action it's obvious ebay considers cookie stuffing both illegal and unethical.

The court document lists various statutes under which eBay says the scheme was illegal.

The document describes how the defendants allegedly used various techniques to try to hide the cookie stuffing from eBay and Commission Junction, whose job it was to detect fraudulent activity. The scheme had been in operation from at least December 2004 through June 2007, aggregating more than $5,000, eBay says. It has since brought its affiliate tracking inhouse and recently dumped hundreds of affiliates.

Cookie stuffing has been around for several years. Ben Edelman of Benedelman.org was one of the first to publicly document numerous cases of cookie stuffing by affiliates in 2004. However, to my knowledge this is the first cookie stuffing case to go to court. Suffice it to say, there will be many interested observers

With this action eBay is intent on sending a clear and unmistakable warning to affiliates.

Here's the news article:
http://www.courthousenews.com/2008/0..._Stuffers_.htm

The court document:
http://www.courthousenews.com/2008/08/26/eBay.pdf

Dale King

[Logan]

Thanks for the heads up on that Dale.

Eeeks, bad ... bad ... bad move.

Keep us posted on how it turns out if you hear more.

[Dale King]

Originally Posted by Logan

Thanks for the heads up on that Dale.

Eeeks, bad ... bad ... bad move.

Keep us posted on how it turns out if you hear more.

No problem, Chris.

Bad move indeed. There's blood in the water, and ebay is Jaws!

Dale King

[spencer]

Cookie stuffing is not ethical, and this practice should be stopped, or at least minimized.

[jg42122]

Ebay is just a horrible money hungry place now they suck