Subject:
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States Go After Online Auctions; $1000 fines
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.market.auction
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Date:
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Wed, 15 Dec 1999 05:42:59 GMT
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Viewed:
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540 times
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A co-worker called my attention to a scary article yesterday. I believe it was
the Dec 7 issue of ComputerWorld tabloid (URL below.) The State of North
Carolina has determined that residents must be licensed by the state to sell on
online auction sites such as eBay.
Unlicensed auctions in NC are misdemeanors and fined $2000. I found that in
Massachussets the law specifies $1000 or 6 months jail. According to a 12/7
announcement, eBay is listening and working diligently on the problem.
I was able to find specific requirements of the Massachusetts and South Carolina
statutes (note: not NC) and it seems most other states regulate auctions. To
become licensed in South Carolina, for example, you must pass a state exam, pay
$75, and conduct 40 hours of open outcry auctioneering as an apprentice in your
first year under the oversight of a fully licensed auctioneer. Only then are you
allowed to advertise and conduct auctions on your own. Or you can take 80 hours
of classroom instruction.
This is somehow relevant to online auctions in which a computer is taking the
bids. Then the Massachusetts law says that all lots for sale by auction must be
on public display. This would leave absolutely no room for anyone in
Massachusetts to auction anything, anyhow online.
So, we have in the making another brew of law badly applied to cyberspace. Why
one state can regulate how its residents conduct business on a computer in
another state is probably going to come up, as it may provide a defense loophole
if one of these cases is prosecuted by NC. I'm not a lawyer so I don't really
know. The whole thing just looks wrong to me.
I recall a precedent set this year in California, in which a judge ruled that a
woman could practice African hair braiding without getting a California
hairdresser's license, since "the state cannot license what it does not teach"
referring to the mandatory classroom curriculum for hairdressers--specifically
its irrelevance to African hair braiding. I myself was shocked that hairdressing
can be a crime, but, by similar logic, these Auctioneer statutes would not cover
the use of eBay.
Online resources:
ComputerWorld article
http://www.computerworld.com/home/print.nsf/all/991206CFDA
SC Auctioneer's Commission
http://www.llr.state.sc.us/auc.htm
State of Massachusetts: Chapter 100 licensing Auctioneers
http://www.state.ma.us/legis/laws/mgl/gl-100-toc.htm
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Message has 5 Replies:
 | | Re: States Go After Online Auctions; $1000 fines
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| Ugghhhhh! Until someone (who can afford to lose!) challenges these laws, sites like eBay are going to become little more than online professional flea markets. I pity the cyber-granny that attempts to auction off some antique only to be slapped with (...) (25 years ago, 15-Dec-99, to lugnet.market.auction)
| | | Re: States Go After Online Auctions; $1000 fines
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| (...) There was an article in the Raleigh (NC) News and Observer within the last two weeks about this. What it said was that "buying to auction" is what is covered, thus, someone auctioning off their old goods is definitely ok. I suspect they also (...) (25 years ago, 15-Dec-99, to lugnet.market.auction)
| | | Re: States Go After Online Auctions; $1000 fines
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| (...) Umm, not true. You put it up for auction. You put it on display (in, say, a store). Someone can bid without going to the public showing. The law is only meant to guarantee that bidders *can* examine the lot for bidding *if the desire*. If (...) (25 years ago, 15-Dec-99, to lugnet.market.auction)
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