Quote:
Originally Posted by Resolute 14
The investigation itself is about cheating on taxes. eBay is using the data housed on servers outside Canada as its excuse to shelter the tax cheats. eBay operates in Canada, it has a responsibility to comply with Canadian law.
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Well, sorta maybe. It's similar to the file sharing lawsuits in Canada from a few years ago. There, as here, the identity and pertinent information of the alleged infringers are not known. The PowerSellers are simply people that have registered Canadian addresses and are known to be prolific sellers. In the file sharing lawsuits, the alleged infringing activity was traceable to a Canadian IP address. In this case, the various Canadian eBay parties not only have ready access to the desired information, they can actually confirm the identity and various other information related to the Canadian PowerSellers. In the file sharing lawsuits, there really wasn't anyway to connect an IP address with a particular person with any accuracy.
In both cases, the thrust of the application was to compel the disclosure of identity information. Unlike in the file sharing lawsuits, here the CRA is able to rely on a statute governing the disclosure of information held or in the control of entities outside of Canada.
There was no evidence that any particular PowerSeller was in violation of the Income Tax Act. However, CRA argued that disclosure of the requested information was necessary to conduct a good faith audit to ensure compliance with the CRA. The appellants argued that a higher standard was required (that the CRA be conducting a serious and genuine inquiry into the activities of an individual). The lower standard was upheld.