DOJ sues eBay for selling ‘rolling coal’ devices; fines could hit $2 billion
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/11/doj-sues-ebay-for-rolling-coal-devices-fines-could-hit-2-billion.htmlOpen linkView original on slrpnk.netSyndicated from the fediverse. Read and engage on the original instance.
View original on slrpnk.nethttps://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/11/doj-sues-ebay-for-rolling-coal-devices-fines-could-hit-2-billion.htmlOpen linkView original on slrpnk.net
46 replies
Some people's dedication to being an asshole is quite astonishing. Imagine paying money just to be able to spew soot at other people's electric cars.
Some people are here to
watchmake the world burn.It's also a practice to used to attack other drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclist etc by blowing black soot in your face. Its often dangerous because it creates a smoke screen where you can't even see the road.
As a person who enjoys clean air I approve of this.
As a person, I approve of this.
I approve of this
I approve
Approved!
As a mammal with lungs I approve.
Good, fuck those guys.
I'm not against people having trucks or modifying them for performance or off-roading or whatever, but people who modify their truck for no other reason than to pollute more are nothing but fucking assholes.
It makes me laugh as in the UK a vehicle bellowing smoke due to an old or broken down engine has always been an indicator of someone being broke and unable to fix it upgrade it, these wankers are intentionally making their trucks look like they're skin flints.
This might make you laugh then:
https://bikeportland.org/2014/06/20/truck-driver-rollin-coal-riders-one-bike-cop-107657
It's a bad idea because that's a flimsy excuse. It would put you at fault more than likely.
The bigger the truck, the more fragile the man.
It's called petromasculinity.
Wait... Ebay is merely a marketplace where people or vendors use the platform to sell their goods.
Shouldn't the individuals be sued?
Or maybe it's because they could be in another country, so they go after the platform itself for allowing such devices to be sold?
Going after the marketplace is a more efficient strategy than playing whack a mole with individual sellers.
Also being a marketplace they do have a duty to make sure that people are not selling illegal items on their platform.
Because if platforms didn't could you imagine how bad the Internet would be for buying things.
I don't disagree. I am generally in favor of keeping markets on a short leash. As you said, it could be a lot worse.
Exactly, keeping markets on a shorter leash is also something I'm generally in favor of
The correct way would be to go after the buyers
The war on drugs would like a word.
As would the RIAA's war on piracy. Despite the exhorbitant fines being handed down, I don't believe they've made any profit from them.
That's a political bomb though. This accomplishes the same end goal and is a strong enough warning to prevent similar markets popping up in the future
Well they are illegal, although enforcement is up to the local jurisdiction. If you try to install these in California for instance, you will have a bad day and they can and will impound your vehicle.
Agreed, but I hope they go after the sellers, too.
Merketplaces can be held liable for third party sellers merchandise as it's ultimately up to the marketplace to chose what is allowed and prohibited to be sold.
Imagine a marketplace allowed vendors to sell human slaves and the government tells that marketplace that is very much not okay stop it. If that marketplace continues allowing third party vendors to sell human slaves then that marketplace has now also broken the law along with the third party vendor and potentially even the purchaser depending on how the law was written.
Good point
I dunno, the article is pretty weak on details. Curious what comes of it.
I agree, hitting a couple of these sellers and manufacturers with multi-million dollar fines would be fucking great. They have to go onto X and complain to their drifting buddies that the only way to support Trump would be to bail them out of jail.
I'd love to see a bounty system for this. If I send my dashcam footage of some asshole rolling coal to the DOT I get a (untaxed) cash reward and the coal-roller gets a large fine and mandatory prius they have to drive for 3 years.
Then they'd realize Priuses actually haul ass from a stop and we'd start to see the first lifted Priuses with mud tires blaring twangy songs about going about life blaring twangy songs in a Prius
Prius kick ass.
That is all I have to say about that
Just wait till these guys find out about Tesla's!
now that many are on their second and beyond owners, priuses are mean aggressive little things
Good.
interesting they're not going after Amazon for the same thing
Hopefully that's a "Not yet," but we'll see
Hopefully reviewers that care will step out and share how crazy the company is. They are full-bore disregarding the entirety of the manual suggesting how to legally sell things.
A court will determine if that claim is true, but if yes, EBay as a market platform won't be liable. A 99.9% interception rate would indicate a considerable effort to prevent illicit trades.
It is true. You will have your listing removed if you try to list something as an emissions defeat device. If you try a second time then your account will be banned.
I listed a carb exempt factory performance ecu made by the vehicle manufacturer and it was removed for going against the tos.
Although they do allow universal ecus like mega squirt. I could see performance programmers sneaking through if they avoid specific language. eBay can't know the specifics of every single item that gets listed.
I don't know about other states, but in Texas they don't even test diesel emissions during our annual registration / inspection. Totally ridiculous!
Vehicle inspections are going away entirely in Texas in 2025.
Is this a first posture against Amazon? They've been selling fake UL listed (terrible, terrible electrically charged garbage) for years and they have never gotten a take down notice. Clipping on a nightlight outlet face-plate to energized (you can't turn these off with a light switch) active terminals is the craziest one I've soon so far.
edit: Amazon has sold 100k of these, this should be an insurance nightmare......
light arcing > corroded metal > more resistance > fire.
UL is a private organization. They would need to go after Amazon or the sellers themselves.
Do you know they're not going after them too?