Rules for Sellers – Overview

eBay's policies are rules and guidelines that help to create a safe, fair and enjoyable trading environment for all eBay members. As a seller, you are responsible for reviewing and understanding eBay’s selling policies, as well as all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the User Agreement.

Learning about eBay's selling policies before you list an item will help you to avoid unintentionally breaking rules. eBay’s selling policies are updated to respond to marketplace, Community and security issues, so it is important to check them regularly for changes.

Violations of these policies may result in a range of actions, including:

• Listing cancellation

• Limits on account privileges

• Account suspension

• Forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings

• Loss of PowerSeller status

Every seller must know and follow:

• Rules about Prohibited and Restricted Items – What items can and cannot be listed

• Rules about Intellectual Property – Items and listings that have the potential of violating certain copyrights, trademarks, or other rights. Intellectual property owners can report listings as part of eBay’s Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) Programme

• Rules for Listings – Actions that are not allowed in listings

• Rules for Accepted Payments – Forms of payment that sellers may accept from buyers

In addition to the above rules, here are some additional policy violations not permitted on eBay:

• Seller Non-performance – Sellers must honour the transaction contract. Sellers cannot fail to deliver an item for which payment was accepted, significantly misrepresent an item by not meeting the terms and item description outlined in the listing, or refuse to accept payment for an item at the end of a successful sale.

• Shill Bidding – Sellers must not bid on their own item, or have family members, roommates or employees bid on their item.

• Tax Policy – Sellers must pay relevant fees and taxes.

Both buyers and sellers cannot interfere with a transaction or offer to buy or sell listed items outside of the eBay site (see Rules for Everyone – Overview).

After your report is received:

• eBay will consider the circumstances of an alleged policy violation and the user's trading record before taking action.

• Disciplinary action may result in listing cancellation, limits on account privileges, account suspension, forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings, and loss of PowerSeller status.

• If a complaint can't be proven with certainty, eBay may take no action.

• Due to privacy issues, it's not possible for eBay to discuss the results of an investigation.

To learn more, you can take the tutorial on Shill Bidding and other Trust and Safety tutorials.