The overwhelming popularity of the on-line auction giant Ebay - with a $22 billion market cap and millions of daily visitors - has inspired a convoy of me-too sites.

Fourteen months ago, Christie's handed over documents to the Justice Department that charted price-fixing and other collusive activities between the auction giants.

Some of the prosecutors' questions, those who have been contacted also say, involve regular meetings that took place betweeen the two auction giants and whether any matters discussed raised antitrust issues.

In 2001, negotiations broke down and MercExchange subsequently sued the online auction giant for patent infringement.

They are said to support allegations of collusion and price-fixing by the two auction giants.

Earnings for the fourth quarter and full year will also be down significantly, said William Ruprecht, president and chief executive of Sotheby's Holdings, parent of the auction giant.

It was reached when Mr. Davidge was about to resign in 1999 and he had produced reams of private documents detailing collusive agreements between the auction giants.

It detailed the chronology of the Christie's internal investigation at a time when the commission was launching its own investigation into price-fixing and collusion between the two auction giants.

Yesterday's sentencing was the penultimate chapter in a dramatic five-year investigation into the rigging of commission fees by the two auction giants that has shaken their gilded $4 billion-a-year world.

EBay, the auction giant, indicated it could support some sort of minimal regulation if it curtailed states' rights to impose a patchwork of differing rules.