Amazon stole, hacked: eBay

Online giant eBay sued three employees working at e-commerce rival Amazon, alleging that they conspired with dozens of other workers to fraudulently take highvalue online merchants from eBay.

Amazon managers, as part of a “racketeering scheme,” offered incentives for employees to illegally infiltrate eBay’s internal messaging system, create fake eBay accounts and recruit merchants who were using the company’s marketplace, according to the complaint filed Wednesday in US District Court in San Jose, Calif., where eBay is based.

In October, eBay filed a lawsuit in California state court making similar allegations against Amazon. The dispute is in arbitration. The new federal lawsuit contains more details about the scope of the alleged scheme. According to eBay, the Amazon managers trained employees to create fake eBay accounts, told them which merchants to target and taught them how to spell out external emails in a way that would elude detection.

The Amazon managers targeted by the lawsuit are Sonja Boch, Amanda Sullivan Hedger and Ernest Arambula, all residents of the Seattle area, according to the lawsuit. An Amazon spokeswoman declined to comment on the lawsuit. The employees couldn’t be reached for comment.

The allegations could intensify scrutiny of Amazon by lawmakers and regulators in the US who are looking at antitrust issues. One of the giant online retailer’s key defenses has been that it operates in a competitive retail market and online merchants have many options for where to sell their goods, including eBay, where shoppers around the world spend about $100 billion a year.

Amazon shares closed down by $11.46, at $1,855.3, and eBay lost 9 cents, to $41.10.