Woman sues eBay for preventing her from selling parts of the sun

Reach for the stars.

Mar 1, 2020, 2:02 am*

Internet Culture


Gabe Bergado

One woman is surely reaching for the stars in her lawsuit against eBay.

Maria Angeles Duran, of Galicia, Spain, is taking the auction website to court over her claim that she owns the sun. Yes, she insists she owns that celestial body in the sky that ensures that the inhabitants of Earth don’t freeze to death. 

Duran started selling parts of the nearby star on eBay at the price of about $1 for 11 square feet a couple of years ago. The company eventually caught on and shut down her money-making scheme. She’s therefore suing eBay for $11,000 to make up for the 600 sold orders she never cashed out on.

According to International Business Times, the trial will go ahead in mid-July. That’s because Duran technically has some traction due to a loophole in the Outer Space Treaty. USA Today reports that under this United Nations agreement, no nation can claim territory on the sun. But it doesn’t ban individuals from doing so. 

We’ll have to wait to see if her plan goes up in flames or if she has her moment in the sun. 

H/T Jezebel, IBT, USA Today | Photos via bruno_brujah/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

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*First Published: Jun 8, 2015, 8:16 pm