The first shots in the new fully declared war on eBay were fired some time back by the ACCC declaring eBay’s attempts to force sellers to only take payments via eBays PayPal payments system.

That hasn’t stopped eBay from forcing sellers to accept PayPal though, and the auction giant also agressively promotes PayPal at every step of the transaction, ensuring many users use it thinking they must.

Now, a rival payment processor, PayMate, is suing eBay over its anti competitive behaviour. PayMate says eBays behaviour is a breach of Australia’s Trade Practices Act. Paymate is asking the ACCC to require eBay to immediately cease its conduct or face prosecution by the ACCC in the Federal Court.

Even some infuriated users are getting into the act, launching legal proceedings over deleted listings, supression of alternative payment methods and refusal to allow sellers to pass on the cost of using PayPal’s service.

We can only hope something comes of all this, it can only be a good thing for everyone if PayMate and Google Checkout were to appear as options in the eBay process.