Gay couples banned from eBay contest
Auction site says it has done nothing wrong by limiting to heterosexuals competition to live rent-free for a year
EBAY has defended a decision to prevent homosexual couples entering a competition to celebrate its 10th anniversary in France.
The auction site is offering two people the chance to live rent-free in a 50m² central Paris apartment for a year.
The flat comes unfurnished and the selected couple have 10 weeks and €8,000 to kit it out, only using material sourced from eBay auctions.
They will be filmed for a TV programme on NRJ12 and must keep a blog, accept press interview requests and appear regularly on NRJ radio to discuss their progress.
The competition rules state: "The game is open to any couple composed of a male adult and a female adult."
Gay news site Citegay wrote: "It is as if eBay does not want to associate itself with gay men or women."
eBay said in a statement to Le Post: "We are looking for people who are representative of the range of products sold on eBay.
"We apologise if the gay community feels left out, but we have done nothing wrong.
"We did not draw up the rules thinking 'absolutely no homosexuals'; Sexuality never entered into our thinking.
"We have quite a large vision of what counts as a couple: a mother and son could count. The only constraint is that the apartment only has one bedroom."
