eBay are calling on the hundreds of thousands of European Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) who want to grow their business to have their say on the Digital Service Act. If you are based in the EU, you can sign a petition to stop onerous checks on your listings.
New EU rules on digital services, known as the Digital Services Act, are in the pipeline and these could seriously impede eBay’s role as an enabler of online trade for SMEs. The proposed rules could mean:
- Risk of seeing your marketplace account or listings blocked without reason or at the slightest involuntary mistake, as well as huge bottlenecks ahead of the publication of your listings
- A more bureaucratic and slower marketplace registration process that may put your privacy at risk
- Less affordable and diverse online services, dominated by only the largest players
eBay say that need the help of those that sell on eBay’s EU sites to influence these changes from being adopted. If you don’t want a load of bureaucracy impeding you eBay listings, join the thousands of small businesses around Europe to speak up to your elected officials about the real impact that these new rules could have on your business. eBay want to:
- Avoid obligations to pre-filter listings
Extensive checks on the completeness or accuracy of product listings would have a chilling impact, encouraging marketplaces to limit offers, including for unique, handmade or customised products. These checks also do not exist offline.
- Maintain existing marketplace responsibility
If marketplaces become liable for each product listed, they will be forced to block legitimate sellers for even the slightest involuntary mistake.
- Ensure a balanced and risk-based know-your-customer regime
New sellers should continue to benefit from a simple marketplace registration process, until they reach a certain level of sales. Rules must recognise and encourage the fact that online sellers grow into small businesses gradually.
- Respect privacy
Sellers should not be forced to provide marketplaces with sensitive data, such as passport scans, until needed for reasonable regulatory reasons, like payment processing. Marketplaces should also not be obliged to publish information that may compromise their sellers’ privacy and safety, such as a home office address.
- Protect sellers from abusive notices
If the marketplace becomes liable, sellers will become vulnerable to abuse of the notice system, and may be victims of unfounded claims from competitors or unhappy customers to get their listings removed.
- Support competition among marketplaces
Disproportionate obligations may force marketplaces to raise their service fees to compensate for new compliance costs, directly hurting sellers. Meanwhile, dominant players that store their own products and control logistics will be placed at an advantage over the vast number of European small sellers.
You can make your voice heard by signing eBay’s petition. eBay will deliver the petition and your signature to all key officials working on the new Digital Services Act, in order to have an impact on the policymaking debate.
6 Responses
there is no option for the uk
The UK is no longer in the EU
god bless boris
Wow an actual Brexit Benefit .
Yes, but eBay being a global platform would surely have to comply?
It’s terrible nobody carefully considers the impact of all this meddling, things are going downhill enough for a lot of people as it is.
The EU at its meddling bureaucratic best.
But don’t tell the remoaners will you….
With many EU couriers still trying to charge VAT on the doorstep despite many buyers already having paid this by IOSS it’s yet another reason not to sell to Europe anymore. If my listings don’t appear on eBay EU sites then I’m past caring.