Quibids Lawsuit Affecting Penny Auctions Around The World

As many of you already know, there was a class action lawsuit against Quibids in 2010. Several countries including the US have lingering worries on the legality of penny bidding sites. The Florida attorney general and other US leaders have publicly stated concern against penny auctions. However, in Europe, where most believe penny auctions started, penny bidding sites are perfectly legal. Most argue that penny bidding sites are illegal because they claim the sites are gambling sites. These worries are not in Europe where gambling law is much leaner.

The country of South Africa is voicing some major concern toward penny auctions. The country has classified penny auction sites as gambling. South Africa's biggest penny site, Smokoo is now illegal. Other major penny auction sites such as BidChaser, KoolDeals, and Viaziz are also deemed illegal. Sites like Smokoo are still live and currently running auctions. I also looked at Smokoo's Facebook page and there is no word on whether the site will close. To read more on the new laws in South Africa click here.

So what does this mean for Quibids? In my original post on the Quibids lawsuit I was very optimistic for Quibids. However, with new legislation in other countries deeming that penny auctions are gambling, it is hard to know what the future holds for Quibids. I hope that Quibids is big enough and strong enough to work through this. I also believe it will take years for legislation to affect Quibids.

Quibids Lawsuit - What side are you on?

As most of you know, a class action lawsuit was filed against Quibids in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. The case is called Lawrence A. Locke vs. Quibids LLC. The lawsuit attacks Quibids website alleging that  the Quibids’s website Quibids.com allows consumers to buy ‘bids” for use in on-line penny auctions of brand new products with the promise of obtaining those consumer products at significant discounts from retail prices but that under the auction system set up by QuiBids, most consumers using the site purportedly will not win the majority of auctions for low ticket items on which they bid and will allegedly rarely win auctions of high ticket items and therefore given that each losing attempt to win an action costs the consumer money (because each bid costs $.60. The plaintiff claims that Quibids functions more like a gambling website than an auction website because each bid a person places is a gamble of whether or not they will actually win and receive the product. The plaintiff also claims that Quibids is a gambling website because the majority of the customers will reportedly lose money while playing on Quibids due to the amount of money they spend on bids, the price of the item, and shipping. Some also spend money on Quibid's Buy It Now feature which allows customers to use the money they spent on bids and apply it to the retail price of the item.

However, what are your thoughts? Who's side are you on? To me, Buy It Now makes Quibids less like a gambling website because you have an opportunity to buy the product whether you win or lose. Also on Quibids, their rules and terms of contract are stated right on their website. The person who is suing Quibids knew full well that he was not guaranteed to win every product he wanted for pennies. The reason people are getting such great products on Quibids for so cheap is because other people lose. Your gain is another's loss.

For more information on the Quibids lawsuit click here.
To read the Bid Penny review of Quibids click here.