The court may soon have to decide on the question whether ecommerce should be subject to laws that traditionally govern commercial transactions that happen in geographically-bound, physical space. A plaintiff Melissa Earll, a deaf woman from Nevada, Mo., claims that eBay has violated federal and California state laws protecting disabled people against discrimination, and is bringing a lawsuit against eBay. Earll says that she is unable to verify her identity through telephone because of her hearing disabilities, which is a required step in order to register to become a seller on eBay.
Earll also claims that eBay has refused her various attempts to verify her identity through alternative ways, and that eBay has “gone out of its way” to design its registration system such that deaf and people with hearing difficulties cannot use. Earll therefore hopes to seek class-action relief from eBay, which she hopes will result in court injunctions against eBay and a requirement that eBay to develop a registration system for people with hearing disabilities. Earll’s representation argues that eBay’s site where more than 80 million users buy and sell various goods and products, is a “place of public accommodation” according to the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. They further claims that the law does not explicitly limit places of public accommodation to brick-and-mortar operations, and hence does not exclude web-based ecommerce sites.
With the rise of ecommerce sites like eBay, Earll’s lawsuit certainly confronts the outdated and rather vague legal definition in the statutory law regarding “place of public accommodation”. Should the court rule in Earll’s favor? What do you think?
The original article can be found here.
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