eBay issued an alert about the Coronavirus COVID-19, advising sellers of policies around listing practices. It warned sellers about making health claims involving the products they sell; and it warned them against price gouging and keyword spamming. (See Wikipedia on price gouging.)
eBay announcement follows:
COVID-19 (Coronavirus) – Important reminder about our listing policies
Considering the global developments associated with Covid-19 (Coronavirus) and our dedication to delivering a safe and trusted marketplace, we would like to remind you of eBay’s Listing Policies:
Health claims and misuse of keywords: titles and item descriptions containing health claims and misusing terms such as “Coronavirus”, “Covid-19”, ‘Virus”, “epidemic” are prohibited.
Inflated prices over market value: listings that attempt to profit from tragedies and disasters (such as the Coronavirus outbreak) are prohibited.
eBay requests that all sellers who have live listings offering items such as face masks, hand sanitizer gel or wipes, etc., review their listings and make sure that they comply with eBay listing policies.
Activity that doesn’t follow eBay listing policies could result in a range of actions, such as eBay ending or canceling your relevant listings, hiding or demoting all listings from search results, lowering your seller rating, enforcing buying or selling restrictions, or suspending your account.
To learn more about the policies and make sure your listings are compliant, we invite you to read our three most relevant policies on this topic: Prescription and over-the-counter drugs policy, Disaster and Tragedy policy, Search manipulation policy.
Our thoughts are with all those affected by Coronavirus.
As always, thank you for selling on eBay.
SOURCE: eBay Announcement
eBay talking about following policies, practices, false claims, price gouging, and spamming?! This is just priceless! eBay is beyond guilty themselves on all points which they speak of. Ridiculous.
Sooo how does ebay price gouge.. 10% of your sales? Hmm, go find a brick and mortar store cheaper! Go ahead, we will wait. Unless you buy it outright you still have a landlord annd city council and licensing board that dictate JUST AS MANY RULES also. Sometimes even what you can sell in their city. You people have never been in the REAL world and it shows LMAO.. Go and find your store cheaper than ebay, wait! Try a antique booth thats cheaper even!! Hahaha HINT: YOU WON’T FIND IT!!
Steve65 wow yet another troll for eBay. Seems you don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. Not surprising at all. FVF, promoted listings, store fees, GTC relist scam, taking fees on shipping, seller penalty fees, should I go on? Not to mention Managed Payments or PayPal fees. Not to mention inevitable fee increases and more of the usual schemes for money at the seller’s expense. Tell me which other platform has more ways to gouge the seller than eBay. I”LL BE WAITING!!
So its okay for Ebay to price gouge with their Promoted Listings and 5% penalties that never seem to go away, but now Ebay wants to attempt to look like they have a humanitarian side and control what Sellers can charge for their goods. I admit that Sellers should not be taking advantage of the health situation, but where does Ebay get off telling anybody that they must lower their prices when all they do is squeeze more and more out of sellers making fewer and fewer sales on their site. I don’t see Ebay waiving their fees for these products to help out those in need, so until Ebay steps up and follows its own advice they will never have any say so as to what I charge for any products I decide to sell on their site.
Any comments from Ebay moderators on this? Is your company willing to waive all of their fees on these products to help out those who are in need of them? Jordan Sweetham – want to step up and make an announcement that Ebay is waiving their fees on these products? I didn’t think so, just another one of Ebays do as i say not as i do statements.
Typical, ebay offers a platform much much cheaper than a brick and mortar, thing is. You have to follow RULES. Wow, why should they lower fees so YOU can make more money off of a virus that can kill people?! You think the bank will lower your mortgage on your store or the landlord will lower your rent because you sell masks that will fend off the virus?! Think about what you type BEFORE typing. People have tripled their existing prices. So yeah, ebay is doing a good thing here, as is Amazon. Because they are BOTH telling sellers if you want the PRIVELEGE of selling here. Stop being an a$$hole and taking advantage of people
Sellers of any product or service may charge what the market will bear. The law of supply and demand operates in a system called capitalism. Its just business.
The CDC is screaming from the top of their lungs NOT to buy masks. If I happen to have some masks that I don’t need, and want to put them up for sale at a price higher than I purchased them, and a person decides not to listen to to the CDC and give me above retail price for them, I don’t really see the problem as long as I’m not saying buy these and you’ll never get the coronavirus.
I don’t really see how this is different from selling a collectible 1970’s star wars toys around Christmas time when a new star wars movie comes out. If someone is willing to buy something they don’t need for more than the cost it originally sold for, who is getting harmed.
Hell, if I sold it at the original price, by the time I shipped it, and ebay, paypal got done with me I’d be losing money.