WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is investigating whether eBay Inc., the world's largest online auction site, violated federal antitrust laws in its actions toward smaller Internet rivals.
The probe, which has been underway since December but still is in its early stages, is focused on eBay's attempts — including a federal lawsuit against one competitor and threats to sue another — to prevent smaller Web companies from listing on their own sites items being auctioned by eBay's customers.
One of eBay's top lawyers, Jay Monahan, said in a statement Friday that company officials "have had some discussions with staff at the Justice Department regarding eBay and the online trading business generally.
"We welcomed that opportunity to talk about our business and to express our serious concerns regarding the practices of some of the aggregators," Monahan said.
These other companies don't auction items themselves, but they offer search tools that scan the inventories of eBay and other Internet sites. As they attract customers of their own, they can cut into eBay's own Web traffic and associated advertising revenues.
Monahan suggested that eBay's "contact with DOJ may have been prompted by" its competitors, although the rivals said Justice initiated the interviews.
The Justice Department declined to comment.
News of the investigation didn't appear to affect eBay's stock price, which opened Friday at $160. It increased more than $11 as high as $171.25 by midday in heavy trading before settling at $164.50 late in the afternoon.
During one meeting, lawyers from Justice's antitrust division wanted to know about "eBay and their business practices within the industry," said James Carney, chief executive officer of rival Bidder's Edge, which was sued by eBay in December in federal court in California.
Carney met for two hours in early January with antitrust lawyers in Washington, after Justice contacted his company in late December requesting an interview.
"They were asking us any number of questions . . . about how the market works, about specific things in detail regarding practices by eBay toward Bidder's Edge," Carney said.
The Justice Department has not submitted to eBay or its rivals civil investigative demands, which are formal requests for documents that could be used as evidence to support an antitrust claim.
The department also interviewed the chief executive at AuctionWatch.Com, another Web site that searches Internet auction sites — including eBay's — and lists items available for bid.
AuctionWatch CEO Rodrigo Sales confirmed that his "conversation centered around the dispute with eBay" but declined to be more specific.
The company, with about 60 employees, spent "hundreds of thousands" to develop a technical workaround after eBay threatened a lawsuit and began blocking the company's computers from searching eBay's listings.
"Dealing with the issue with eBay has taken up a considerable amount of management bandwidth," Sales said.