The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is looking to halt attempts by online auction house eBay to force sellers in the country to offer PayPal as a payments option on sales listings.
In July eBay abandoned plans to remove other payments options - such as direct bank deposits, cheques and money orders - from its auction site and force Australian customers to use the PayPal service exclusively to make payments.
However eBay refused to halt the introduction of a rule to make all sellers offer PayPal as one of their payments options.
The RBA now says it will "shortly be holding discussions with PayPal with a view to seeking the removal of these rules".
"Over recent months, the Board has received a number of comments on the no-surcharge and no-steering rules that apply to payments using the PayPal system as well as the mandated acceptance of PayPal on eBay's auction site," says the RBA in a statement. "Where no-surcharge and no-steering rules have existed in other systems, the board has encouraged their removal on the grounds that these rules can diminish competition in the payments system."
Last month a group of Australian eBay sellers called for the RBA to prevent eBay from forcing them to offer PayPal as a payment option on every sales listing.