EBay Lessons for the Law

EBay has an internal legal system superior to that of the lawyer and government.

1. Contracts. If one does not keep one's promise on EBay, ratings warn others. The risk results in lower bids. If one fails to deliver several times, one may be excluded from this multi-billion dollar market. Fraudulent purchasers get excluded, as well as sellers. Small disputes get resolved by communication, and the fear of poor ratings. In contract law, only the biggest contracts get enforced by the law, because legal fees are not worth an action for under $10's of 1000's. Performance on EBay takes place in the overwhelming majority of cases. In the world of contract law, the rate of performance is unknown, and likely to be low.

2. Torts.

3. Evidence. In the law, one must produce an expert to testify to the value of a product, an opinion, a guess, a biased view paid for by the hiring attorney. On EBay, the selling price is a fact for the product, at that time. The price reflects the sincerest value of a worldwide market.