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It is legal for the seller to cancel all bids and end the auction early. I don't think that they would even need to cancel the bids to end it early if the reserve price has not been met. Seller could also end a non-reserved auction early without cancelling bids if the price they want for the item has already been reached.
Ebay gives the seller various options to end auctions early: Item no longer available, Item has become damaged during the auction, etc.
Both the buyer and seller are 'legally' bound to complete the auction as it ends up if it is not cancelled by the seller and if the reserve is met. But what does this really mean? Are buyers or sellers really going to eat the costs of litigation in order to make the other party hold to the 'bid contract'? Usually not: Too costly and not a given as to whether you will 'win in court'. On eBay either party only risks a bad feedback rating, after which they can always register under another user name.
Tom
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