Montreal judge boots eBay in $100,000 sneaker case

  Montreal-born Jeff Skoll, who founded eBay after growing up at 6822 Mountain Sights, might be a bit irked at his hometown.
  The Skolls left Quebec when Jeff was about 13, after the first referendum, as talented people flooded away during a time of bad politics.
  Skoll has given away $1 billion to charity since becoming rich but he has not, to our knowledge, directed much - or any of it - to his hometown of Montreal.
   But a pair of Montreal brothers might get $100,000 of his cash, at least.
   On September 23 Quebec Superior Court Justice Chantal Corriveau ordered eBay to pay Thierry Mofo Moko and his younger brother Kevin Mofo Moko $86,000 plus interest for money they purportedly would have received had their online sneaker sale not been cancelled.
   The interest on the claim raises the total to over $100,000 Cdn.
   Nike made only 1,200 pairs of Air Foamposite Galaxy One sneakers. Forty pairs were sold in Montreal, which went on sale at a downtown store at midnight on 24 Feb 2012.

Skoll

   The brothers paid $280 for the shoes and posted them for sale on eBay. They rapidly received an offer of $50,000. They also received a note offering them $80,000 for the sneakers off-auction but eBay reminded them that they were not allowed to sell through the network without paying the commission.
   A few hours later they received an offer of $98,000 for the shoes.
   However an eBay bot cancelled the sale and removed the page, citing the brothers' lack of sales history, the exaggerated price, the generic photo and the sketchy purchase payment history of the bidders.
   eBay forbade them to repost the ad but the brothers phoned the company and they were permitted to try to auction them anew, but this time they pulled the shoes as they realized that they'd need to keep the shoes as evidence of their lost profit.
  They hired a young lawyer named Bruno Sasson to sue for the lost bid.
   eBay had fought against the case being heard in Quebec, as they would have preferred it go down where they are headquartered in California however a Quebec court deemed that the case should be heard in Montreal.
  eBay hired Stikeman Elliot, one of the city's top law firms, who put youngAlexandre Thériault-Marois on the case. The young man with the double family name was a high-profile cat during the student strikes and also seems involved in provincial politics and maintains an active Twitter account.
    Justice Corriveau shot down a few of his arguments. She contradicted his claim that the shoes were used goods. She also refused to allow evidence that the average price of the shoes was more like $1,200 or so, only a tiny fraction of the gaudy price offered.

Younger brother Kevin

    eBay has not commented on the verdict but it seems likely that they will file an appeal.
   The brothers said that they would use the money to help their family in the Congo.
   Kevin Mofo, on his LinkedIn page, lists himself as a sales rep for Telus, and also as a concert promoter and former dance instructor.
   The identity of the person supposedly willing to pay $98,000 for the shoes was not revealed on any online source.
    The bid $98,000 bid appears far out of whack with established prices, as the most expensive shoes in the world cost only $6,000 more than that as the runners worn by Michael Jordan in a famous 1997 basketball game went for $104,000 in 2013.