Surge in Popularity Forced eBay to Change Legal Strategy

There was a time when eBay looked the other way when fraud took place on its Web site. But when traffic mushroomed from 2.2 million users in 1998 to 42.4 million in 2001, eBay had to rethink that strategy. The spike in users brought an influx of less-than-honest bidders and sellers. To protect its profits and ward off costly lawsuits, eBay switched from a "hands-off" to a "hands-on" legal strategy.