eBay is facing a class action lawsuit that claims the marketplace’s Featured Plus! service failed to give sellers who purchased the service higher placement in search results, as the feature is meant to do.
In the suit, which was filed on Monday, lead plaintiff Custom LED claims Featured Plus!, which cost the seller up to $39.95 per listing, did not help listings that used the feature get higher rankings in search results. The company says products were only given a boost when shoppers began their searches for items that had this feature on eBay Motors.
Featured Plus! is meant to show items in the Featured Items section “at the top of search result pages for Motors site searches,” according to an eBay seller information page.
eBay did not respond to inquiries by press time.
Custom LED also notes in the suit that the service was “nonfunctional” for the last six months of 2011 and that eBay continued charging for the service, though officials knew of a bug that prevented listings from appearing higher in search results.
Custom LED is seeking damages for breach of contract, unfair business practices, false advertising and fraud, according to the suit.