Next week eBay will survey thousands of buyers and sellers across Europe asking them to sign a petition regarding trade barriers. This will be presented to European decision-makers asking them to amend EU competition law in order to make it harder for certain brands and manufacturers to block the sale of their products on eBay and other marketplaces
eBay was built on the principle of enabling ordinary people to buy and sell practically anything to or from anywhere in the world. It’s enabled thousands of people to turn online selling into a business and at the same time provided great deals for buyers from the widest possible selection of goods.
Brand owners (and not just those supplying luxury goods) are threatening free trade by attempting to restrict sales of their products online, or by imposing onerous conditions on sellers. According to the latest Online Business Index, two in five online businesses have experienced mysterious problems with suppliers or manufacturers which they suspected were due to selling their products over the internet.
“We have 4 or 5 suppliers that would threaten future orders if we sold online. One company actually dictates a price to sell their products at, and if we are seen to sell lower, then supply has been restricted until we explain our position and resolve it. Others only allow us to sell on our own website, not on online marketplaces, which makes life a lot harder for consumers because they want to be able to shop around easily. Some suppliers can be pretty intimidating – they know the power they have over small companies like ours.”
Sporting equipment retailer, Yorkshire
You should receive an email in your eBay My Messages towards the middle of next week. If you believe you shouldn’t face restrictions on what you buy or sell online we’d encourage you to sign the online petition and make your voice heard.
06/07/09 Edited to add
eBay have started emailing users and the petition is now live and can be accessed by linking your account to eBay Government Relations.
The full text of the petition is:
We, the undersigned, oppose attempts by certain brand owners and manufacturers to unfairly limit the sale and resale of their products on the internet.
Increasingly, these brand owners are blocking the sale on online marketplaces and other websites of luxury items, as well as everyday items like children’s toys, electronic equipment, lawnmowers and pushchairs – regardless of whether such items are new or second-hand, genuine or fake. If we want to prevent other brands from following suit, we need to act now.
We believe that such restrictions represent an unfair restraint on the right to buy and sell goods freely in the European Single Market and are based less on a motivation to benefit consumers than they are on a desire to artificially inflate prices and profits by eliminating competition from online sellers, many of them small businesses.
We accept that brand owners should be able to determine, within limits, how their products are initially sold. However, we believe strongly that they should not be allowed to impose blanket bans on internet selling, and any other restrictions on trade must be based on objective and publicly available criteria which are of proven benefit to consumers. For example, manufacturers should generally not be allowed to insist that internet retailers must have an offline retail store before they can sell online, or impose more onerous sales conditions to online sellers. Above all, consumers should be allowed to resell items they have paid for.
We therefore call on European policymakers to amend EU competition law to outlaw excessive limitations on internet selling and force brands to publish all vertical agreements which are designed to limit the trade in their products. At a time when consumers’ purchasing power is increasingly under threat from the current financial and economic crisis, we urge European policymakers to take decisive action to promote competition and free trade within the European Union and call on political parties across Europe to support the right to buy and sell freely over the internet.
84 Responses
We have a number of suppliers who stop us from selling their products on ebay so for one will be signing the petition.
It’s possible that the retailers of particular brands stipulate a restriction on who else has access to a particular brands stock.
This is a small time example, but years ago my dad had a fishing tackle shop in the North East of Scotland, right in the middle of prime salmon fishing territory, he agreed to retail a particular brand if the brand owner agreed to not wholesale to anyone within a 100 mile radius of his shop.
They agreed to that condition.
There are many factors involved in retail, it is not always the manufacturer that makes the final decision
Brand owners (and not just those supplying luxury goods) are threatening free trade by attempting to restrict sales of their products online’
Is that not what Ebay are trying to do ?. Free trade means just that.
Surely restricting who supplies your product adds an element of exclusivity and a resulting higher profit margin, surely free trade is just that, the manufacturer is ‘free’ to decide.
The suppliers are basically saying, ‘do as you’re told’ or sling yer hook, is that not what Ebay have been doing to sellers for the last few years?
#3 In a word…No.
That would be the same as saying “it’s a free world, so if I don’t want to employ women then I won’t”
Pete, so many times I see on the Q&A, where a buyer comes on and complains that a seller has refused to sell for whatever reason, the responses are without exception , that the item belongs to the seller and he therefore has the final decision.
We are not talking about ethics here.
Really, Chris, online petition?
#6 I think you are a little bit confused. You are talking about 2 different situations that are not connected in any way.
And the last time I checked, eBay forums were not the best place to gather information on how to run your business or a good/accurate source of legal information.
What you are talking about is protectionism NOT free trade. protectionism is a very bad thing. One of the things it does it drives costs down, meaning that the larger brands are always looking for lower paid workforce, we have all seen how this effects other economies.
We have suppliers who ask/tell us we cannot sell their goods on eBay, and we are very supportive of them. They’re just trying to protect their brand and their current loyal stockists.
#8 I agree entirely. Most of my suppliers were around long before the rise of internet, their growth and expansion over the last decade has been supported by B&M merchants, B&M merchants who are still supporting them now, ….let us not forget how many people in this country work in retail shops.
Their are geniune reasons to support manufactures who take this stance and I fully support them.
#7 Surely completely free trade will result in the same thing
lower end prices resulting in cutting costs and a lower paid workforce.
And actually ebay forums are great place to learn how to run a business as you get to see so many screw up their own and it makes avoiding the same mistakes pretty simple.
Oh and how good the days were when we used to get our milk delivered by horse and cart.
Times change, B&M shops are on the way out, another 10 years and most large brands will be missing from the high street, the exodus has already started.
And, eBay forums really are not the place to get accurate advice (from stable people…gobonastick case in point)
I would rather get my milk delivered than support the supermarket who screws their suppliers on a daily basis.
You have to find a balance and I don’t think having millions more people on the dole and rows of boarded up shops blotting the landscape is the way forward.
Don’t think B&M are quite on the way out. I still enjoy shopping & like to have things now & which fit properly and look and feel gooood (buying a CD or a book or a printer is a different thing). Depends which high street you mean & which brands.
I can’t believe anyone thinks eBay actually cares about business people, all it cares about is having it’s grubby little site filled with ever cheaper goods. Like Walmart, Tesco’s, etc. it wont be happy until it’s squeezed every last penny from suppliers and they’ve all gone bust. eBay is full of busy fools turning over large sums of money and making nothing or a loss, why should companies fuel the race to the bottom with their brands, I can’t think of a good reason.
Whirly what you have to ask yourself is if you buy your wife some rather expensive cosmetics for Christmas and subsequently discover that it’s the one brand she doesn’t like why shouldn’t she have the right to resell them online to recoup some of the hard earned cash that you paid? Some brand owners will simply VeRO you for daring to list a single unwanted item and that can’t be right!
It’s not all about the highstreet vs the Internet – some of it is about ordinary people wanting to dispose of unwanted but paid for (and probably purchased on the high street) goods.
(Of course that’s just an example and I’m supremely confident that you’d never do anything so crass as to buy your wife smellies that she didn’t like 😀 )
#15 Thats why I always keep the reciepts so she can get the full value back when she inevitably returns it.
It’s all a question of scale really, individuals have the ‘right’ to sell their goods online but ebay has become that big that it is now another corp. and these rulings do affect peoples jobs too remember and anyway, why shouldn’t brands have reasonable power over their products? Personally i’m not convinced by ebays’ argument and it’s ‘internet freedom’ approach to people, at the end of the day if ebay gains more power it will exploit it as it is now a business like any other.
15> Chris in your example it is eBay who is blocking the seller from making the sale by acting on a spurious vero report. If a rights owner has a legitimate complaint against a seller it is my opinion that they should communicate directly with the seller. VERO is just a short cut for eBay and rights owners when in fact things should be dealt with through the courts and in line with the law.
Have you ever been prevented from buying stock because you want to pay by Credit Card / Cheque or Postal Order?
Have Ebay ever removed your perfectly legitimate listings?
Do Ebay restrict sale of your goods due to their payment policies?
Have you been told you can only sell products if you accept PayPal?
Next week eBay will survey thousands of buyers and sellers across Europe asking them to sign a petition regarding Payment barriers. This will be presented to the Ebay decision-makers asking them to amend EU competition law in order to make it harder for Ebay to block the sale of their products on eBay to those wishing to pay using methods other than PayPal
Well ebay will now understand how it feels to control people like robots.
Alittle something to remind them what you do to others will surely come back to you.
Don’t throw a stone at a glass.
Jimbo it’s not eBay – eBay are obliged to provide a mechanism for rights owners to remove genuinely infringing articles such as counterfeits or unlicensed goods. When using VeRO the rights owner has to declare that the goods are genuinely infringing.
Quite frankly a bottle of perfume that was bought on the high street as a gift and is unopened, sealed and unused but unwanted should be able to be sold as new, without a rights owner abusing VeRO to remove it. Currently that’s not always the case.
Chris why are eBay obliged to act on a false claims?
Jimbo they’re not in a position to judge what’s legitimate and what’s counterfeit. If you read the NOCI (pdf document) you’ll see the reason codes for why items can be removed and it’s the company submitting the VeRO take down notice that takes responsibility.
If a company VeROs you and the goods are legitimate you can sue them. The trouble is not enough people do, because they can’t afford the risk of a long protracted case that will eat up money in legal costs. Even if you know you’ll win it’s a tough call to put the money up front not to mention the time involved.
#22 maybe eBay should put more of their money where their mouth is and start standing up for the itself/sellers instead of dropping to their knee’s like babies everytime a vero complaint is made.
If ebay are not in a position to say whether something is legit or not then surely they should do nothing at all? give the firm in question the sellers details.
If eBay are not in a position to judge if something is legit or not why do sellers get policy violations for something eBay admit they don’t know is breaking any laws?
The whole system is defunct and belongs in the 90’s.
An interesting number of comments with good arguments for and against, but let’s not forget the bottom line – Business is Business
Does anybody really think that ebay cares about Free Trade, sellers or buyers?
If you have any doubt try asking seller support a simple question and see what sort of response you get.
Try and get a totally unfair negative feedback comment removed, or argue that you are the victim of a serial fraudster and see how caring / sharing they are.
What ebay care about is profit, pure and simple. I haven’t got a problem with this motive, after all money makes the world go around (or so the song says).
It all boils down to profit, so please don’t be fooled into thinking ebay is standing up for your rights.
All its doing is seeking to make the market more suitable for ebay, so that we good sellers can sell more and pay more listing and selling fees.
At the moment there is a giant influx of overseas registered sellers selling directly to the UK market on a a UK market place (ebay UK). Some of the products that they sell do not comply with EU/UK regulations nor do their selling practices. An eBay loophole is used to receive free listing fees. In my opinion this downgrades the “eBay experience” for shoppers and retailers. If eBay showed some initiative in clearing up things like this maybe more “brand owners and manufacturers ” would be happy to allow their products to be sold via eBay.
We’ve been told by a supplier that they view eBay as turning into a dumping ground for overstock and seconds, and to a large extent I can’t argue with them. With this in mind, why would they want their products sold there?
#26 while I have some sympathy for them it is a bit like selling you a car and then telling you that you cant drive it in a particular town.
they have their reasons but they should not be able to say what happens to their product after they have sold it.
these folk would rather you threw it in the bin than resell it and that is just wrong.
In fairness, they’re saying what happens to their products ‘before’ they have sold it to us. It’s then our decision if we want to stock it or not.
And there are a lot of other places to sell than eBay. We might not sell as many if they are not on eBay, but we can sell them at a higher price, which enables us to afford to give the customer a better service.
yes but why single out ebay or even “online?
sorry but that is a restrictive practice wether you agree to it or not.
they are taking away a choice from you
and that can never be a good thing in any circumstances.
I expect some of them are looking at it as a long term issue. Everyone knows that there are a lot of busy fools on eBay who sell lots of items and then 12 months later disappear as they didn’t realise they were making no money after fees, vat etc.
These sellers offer no long term security for suppliers, as not only will the sellers go out of business after 12 or so months (in the 7 years we’ve been on eBay we’ve seen dozens of these), but also, the more clued-up suppliers’ customers will have moved on to different products as they could make no money selling at such low mark ups. Where will this leave the supplier?
Yes it is restrictive, but eBay is a unique selling platform, and that’s why some suppliers are viewing and treating it differently.
Yes they are taking away a choice from me, but this is not a bad thing. If a customer cannot buy it from me on eBay, they can buy it from me from our website. They will get a better service, and I will make more money.
I received my email today, oh the irony of the title.
“Demand an end to unfair trade practices”
Yes ebay, it isn’t nice when people force you to do things that impact on your business. Maybe you’ll think about that next time you look at fee hikes and giving buyers carte blanche to defraud sellers.
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^^ and this is what you see if you click on the ‘sign our petition’ link!! Like many others no doubt, I hit the back button at that point.
The words booze up and brewery inexplicably come to mind.
#31
Agree completly
^^ yes me too, ebay suck but my enemy’s enemy is my friend and I’m not going to cut my nose off to spite my face.
ok so if you sell something on your website that your supplier says you cannot sell on ebay do you tell your customers that they cannot sell it on ebay?
and if not, why not?
Hmmm…I’m on the fence here. Whilst ebay is so accessable, and a good place to pick up a bargain, their stance on ticket touting riles me, and its something they havent yet bothered to tackle.
35> yes, if people didn’t sign this petition, then maybe our views could be heard about other objectionable ebay practices such as those mentioned. At the end of the day it’s all about co-operation.
The lack of control in the VERO programme should be Ebays first port of call.
As far as I understand, anyone can claim to have VERO rights and stop a competitor from selling.
No qualification of the applicant for VERO rights is required.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
If that is the case, then that should be Ebays first port of call.
Mark
@ # 36
You are correct. The website negative-feedback.com details just such an issue where someone claimed to be the rights owner and wasn’t. Then to make things worse the actual rights owner contacted eBay giving the seller his permission but eBay still complied with the other’s VeRO requests.
ebays competition remains small, although the potential for competition is large. Contrast this with a lot of the other brand companies who are complaining and who have large commercial competition. People can change ebays’ practices, but they must be in the majority. To this extent internet freedom may exist.
@35 No we don’t, and that’s because it’s never really crossed my mind. It’s not us that doesn’t want it sold on eBay, it’s the supplier, so they need to be the ones that are proactive in stopping items appearing on these channels.
Maybe in future, supplier’s will include on the packaging “Not to be re-sold on auction sites”.
Microsoft, microsoft microsoft.
The worst offender for vero.
We once had a lot of office 97 packs that were not OEM an were full retail packs.
Microsoft pulled them and said they were counterfit, please provide us with more close up pics of them. We duley did an still the same “their counterfit” line.
They stop you legally selling items, i have other more specifics, i dont want to go into those on here as it may be specific to me from other companys.
From my knowlage on european law, no company can stop the sale of goods once you own it. You can sell anything as it is yours to sell.
A company may not supply you if they want, thats their perogative. Once its yours you can do with as you please.
Although ebays VEROs dont see it that way.
#42 I think you are right. There is some law that doesn’t allow the restriction of trade due to issues with price fixing etc. But there is always a way around these laws, especially for the big brands.
There are aspects of trade, competition and intellectual property law involved in this and the most effective way around the law might be said (by the cynical, at least) to be the depth of the pockets of the big players.
However, for eBay to criticise others’ trade practices is a bit like the pot calling the kettle black.
In the United States we have what is called the first-sale doctrine. Surely Europe would have something similar.
See Timothy S. Vernor v. Autodesk Inc.
Try listing your brand new unopened but simply not wanted bottle of Lancome/L’Oreal perfume on an EU eBay site and see what happens ]:)
(Really wouldn’t recommend you use an account you’re fond of though 🙁 )
Chris do Lancome/L’Oreal have any legal right to have an item removed in the circumstance that you give?
I don’t know if they have a legal right, but the French courts upheld a ban of the sales of Kenzo, Guerlain, Christian Dior, and Givenchy on any eBay site accessible to France.
To be honest if it was me on my main eBay account I simply wouldn’t risk it 🙁 Sad but true, and that’s why removing trade barriers is such a key issue.
But in the French case the problem was that counterfeits were being sold through the site & not a problem with “Trade Barriers” (If I understand correctly).
Would EU kite marks or UK Assay regulations etc. (which are meant to protect the consumer) be seen as obstacles to “free trade”?
Not so much counterfeits as protectionism to limit the market. That particular case blocks sales of genuine perfumes from unauthorized retailers (and surprise surprise there are no “authorized retailers” selling the perfumes in question on eBay.
Can manufactures prevent the resale of their products which customers legally paid for? In this instance the answer appears to be yes 🙁
#51 eBay could solve it in an instant, they could tell whoever to feck off.
Or Whirly, they could cough up the €50,000 court imposed fine for each and every day one of those four perfume brands appears on the site 😯
No easy way out for them and the more manufacturers limit sales of their products the worse for buyers and sellers which is why I feel the petition is a pretty big deal and I hope it influences the EU policy makers.
I’ve just tried to find some more info on the case without much luck but I thought that the basis of the case was that counterfeits were being sold though eBay.
On what grounds have the perfume brands received the ruling?
Basically they received the ruling on the basis of counterfeit goods, but muddied the water enough that the French courts got overly protective of their perfume industry and decided to allow a blanket ban of their products. They claimed (if I recall correctly) that some 90% of LVMH sold on eBay are fakes.
Mind you, L’Oreal also supposedly produced 15 hand selected products to produce as evidence in court in their case against eBay UK and I’m told that not a single one of their carefully chosen selection was proven to be counterfeit, which can’t have done their case much good!
I was highly amused to see the subject line of Ebay’s pleading email.
‘Demand an end to unfair trade practices’
What? You mean ones like:
Forcing sellers to send goods postage free!
Preventing sellers from using feedback to point out scumbag buyers!
Overcharging sellers for appalling service because you’re a virtual monopoly!
Forcing sellers to use the Ebay owned PayPal!
Treating sellers, the people who pay Ebay’s wages, like scum!
and on, and on….
… and er, guess what, I won’t be signing any petition.
‘Live by the sword, die by the sword!’
#57 And that sums up nicely eBay’s biggest problem, we got S*it on from a great height last year, pretty much anyone I speak to about selling on ebay feels the same way, it’s ok to dance with the devil when the dance floor is empty but as soon as something else comes along that can offer sellers big traffic then a large % of them will leave like a shot.
eBay provides me with fantastic traffic, but, I can’t stand they way they run it, I can’t stand the way they speak down to me like I am an idiot, I could go on…for now I stay because it makes financial sense but if the day comes when something else crops up I will be off like a bullet.
The day that Google start an online market place will be the day after you should have sold your eBay shares.
I notice that there are a few guide to help eBayers spot fake Lancome products on the eBay UK site.
Put sterling silver into the search box and how many of the items on the first page do not comply with the hallmaking act. In my opinion this kind of thing is a much more real and definite threat to my eBay business.
Put Tiffany & Co into the search. How many of you would feel confident about making a purchase (even if the seller has 100% feedback)
#57
100% correct
Ebay needs to get their own house in order before laying down the law to others.
Does anybody think ebay treats its buyers fair? I don’t think so!
I’m with Whirly on this one – ebay pays some of the bills and Amazon pays the others. If I could move lock stock and barrel to Amazon I’d be off like a long dog.
Amazon treats sellers with respect; ebay either ignores you or replies with some cut and pasted mish mash of rubbish.
I don’t think they realise just how fragile a position they hold. All its going to take is Alan Sugar, Richard Branson and a bunch of Dragons from the Den to get together and offer an alternative.
OK, I know this is cloud cuckoo land thinking, but I wish it would happen, because I have no loyalty left for ebay.
Seems a tad short sighted not to sign because is allegedly guilty of the same or similar actions.
I suppose it boils down to wanting more than just ebay dumping on you from a great height or just ebay
personally ebay dump on me enough without letting someone else in on the act.
If the EU rule comes in ANY Maker of ANYTHING will be able to stop you selling their items on ebay
So unless you make your own product your coat is on a shoogly peg.
@ # 63
Just sell imports from China. They never seem to complain when their items appear on eBay.
Whirly, me and the chinese will be all that is left…lol
I would like some more info on the “EU competition law” that the petition wants to block/amend.
Some items do need to be sold at an appropriate venue (possible examples: child car seats, crash helmets, knives, alcohol, tickets to football matches).
I also feel that at the first line of sale suppliers should be allowed to have some say on how there items are sold but once an item has been sold into the market those rights end.
I would also like to see eBay taking a more pro active stance in regard to sales of goods that don’t meet EU/UK regulations.
The longer I watch that animated thingy, the funnier it gets.
Let’s put another frame in:
“Had your livelihood taken away and been called a dolphin?”
Wonder what percentage that would be.
I was restricted, by the manufacturer, from selling their new goods on eBay because I was ‘damaging the industry’ by selling as cheaply as I was. They had no problem with my selling on my website at the same prices, but eBay was too public.
They threatened to close my account with the result that I’d be unable to provide any after sales spares to my existing customers.
Illegal??. I think so, but I haven’t got the resources to fight them. They also have the same rights as any seller to refuse to sell to me, and fighting them will almost certainly result in me losing my account anyway.
I don’t think changes in the law will make any difference to me.
@ Bob. Did the supplier mind sellers selling their new products at healthier margins on eBay? If so, did you follow suit?
@lino. The thing they objected to was the transparency of price in the huge marketplace that eBay is. They were under pressure from others in the industry (their other customers) who claimed I was damaging the industry by selling so low, even though I was making a good profit.
The industry I’m in isn’t a natural online industry, and other people in the industry were visiting customers and quoting prices and getting told that they could buy the same on eBay for £XXX. It was giving them a hard time. poor souls.
For what I was actually selling it wasn’t worth the hassle and I didn’t think that increasing prices would help the sales levels at all.
There are others listing the same product on eBay at varying prices, but they may be risking their account with the supplier.
#65
Think you may have forgotten someone ???
x
I have seen eBays policies from the other side. Where they know that something was fake but refused to remove it.
I seen a set of DVDs for sale on eBay that had every episode of a particular TV series. As a member of the fan club I was aware that all episodes had never been released on DVD. When I contacted eBay and pointed this out their reply was that the seller had put in their listing that the material was in the public domain. I even highlighted that the DVDs did not carry a British Board of Film Classification certificate and therefore it was illegal to sell them in Britain. I supplied them with links to the BBFC website showing what episodes of the program were legal in the UK but they simply ignored this. It was only when I had contacted trading standards and they became involved did eBay remove the listing. If this is how eBay deal with obviously illegal goods on their site then I feel that they should be accountable. Their old get out clause of “We don’t sell the goods. We are simply a channel for the transaction” no longer rings true.
#72 I think your expectations are a little high. eBay, rightly so will never and should never remove listings because in your “opinion” they are illegal or fake.
To eBay and most other people you are no-one, just someone with an opinion on some DVDs.
Surely you never expected eBay to remove these items.
I do agree with you when you say the days are gone when eBay can simply shirk all responsibility of listings on “their” site, but we are a long way from any real change.
#71 Me is we and We is me.
So Bigpoppa you feel that when it is brought to eBay’s attention that DVDs with no BBFC certificate are being sold on their site they are at liberty to ignore this. They have a responsibility to use due diligence to make sure that illegal items are not sold on their website. In this case they did not show this. This is why trading standards forced them to remove the DVDs. This case highlights eBays disregard for the law, they are happy to allow illegal goods to be sold as long as they think that they can get away with it.
You have contradicted yourself. I said that eBay shouldn’t act solely upon “your” say so. They acted, correctly in response to Trading Standards.
Besides you have no idea what action eBay have or have not taken. Simply because you cannot see any effect, doesn’t mean that noting is being done.
There are some items that are so patently obviously wrong that eBay should in my opinion take them down on the report of one individual (& in some sensitive cases they do, in my experience).
Once I had supplied eBay with links to the BBFC website which showed that these DVDs were illegal they should have acted. Instead they tried to hide behind the fact the the seller claimed that the material is in the public domain. This was irrelevant and eBay must have been aware of this. The simple fact of the matter is that they were notified of illegal material being sold on the site and evidence to prove this was supplied but they made the decision to allow criminal activity to continue on their website. If eBay are not aware of, or choose not adhere to the Video Recordings Act 1984 then they should not allow DVD sales on their website.
Haggis2009…So you think that eBay should have listened and believed what you told them but NOT to what the seller told them.
I suppose this is because you know better than anyone, how dare eBay not act on your say so.
You should complain to someone, I get the feeling that you might be quite good at it.
If nothing else, I think we have all learnt that eBay should NEVER act on the say so of one person, especially where the potential to ruin someones business is at stake.
Bigpoppa read my post properly. It was not just my say so, it was clearly stated on the BBFC website that these discs had never been certified for sale or hire. This means that it is a criminal offence to do so in the UK. As I have stated “If eBay are not aware of, or choose not adhere to the Video Recordings Act 1984 then they should not allow DVD sales on their website.”
Hi Haggis, ebay wont listen to you.
You can tell them about this law or that law and they will not listen, if you were a law official/trading standards they would do.
You can point out laws till your blue in the face, i did so with microsoft and the sale of goods under EU law and they wouldnt listen. Ebay broke the law by stopping me selling these items, their are also quite a few other instances where they do so and those are plain to see.
Ebay are a huge company, they dont listen to individuals.
The video recordings act would cover a lot more than ebay would ever care to remove, all the bootleg DVD / concert videos make ebay some nice profits, we wouldnt want to stop that now would we…
…….as a part time “mom and pop” seller on ebay, i laughed out loud when i got the email from them.
Does ebay really think, after it has belittled and mucked around sellers like me (noise apparently), that i would spend any longer than, ooh i dunno, zero seconds, helping them?
sorry, but no way!
I believe that if you use eBay then you should support eBay. Yes they make mistakes and yes some of their rules are a bit “out there” but at the end of the day they provide many many people with an opportunity to either run a business or earn extra income.
On the whole what eBay are trying to achieve with this, is a good thing.