eBay vs Craiglist - to be continued

The "fight" between two websites eBay and Craigslist, that became one of the most popular ones, is not going to stop. On the contrary it became known that Craigslist has countersued eBay Inc. and allege that online giant is breaching federal and state antitrust laws.

According to Craigslist eBay tried to suppress competition and used privileges and information gleaned from its 28 percent stake in Craigslist to benefit its own classifieds site Kijiji, launched last year in the U.S., and internally called as "Craigslist killer" by eBay officers. The counter-claim of Craiglist was submitted to state Superior Court in San Francisco.

The representatives of eBay refuse all the blames and have said that Craiglist just tries to divert attention from the lawsuit against their company. We just want to remind that this suit was filed by eBay in April alleging that administration of Craiglist Craig Newmark, its founder, and Jim Buckmaster, CEO for Craiglist were involved in some "clandestine transactions" aimed to dilute eBay's stake.

Everything began 4 years ago when eBay has purchased its stake in Craigslist. According to the agreement if eBay tries to compete against Craigslist, eBay will lose rights to Craigslist's management and information. Craigslist alleges that eBay has triggered that provision by launching Kijiji. Craiglist blames eBay on breach of the federal Clayton Antitrust Act and California law prohibiting participation on the board of a competitor, as it has named Craigslist's board who was a Kijiji insider.  Company also claims that eBay was using its name to advertise Kijiji.

According to Craiglist representatives they only want eBay to divest from their company and stop using its name in advertisements as well as to pay damages.