In today’s Business seller release, a new eBay Regulatory Operating Fee Surcharge has been announced. From the 8th of April 2024, this new regulatory operating fee will apply to all sales from listings on the following sites: UK, Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and Switzerland.
eBay say that this new fee is to address the rising costs associated with the increasing number and complexity of regulations, including consumer and environmental protection, as well as new taxation and customs measures.
This fee is calculated as a fixed percentage rate (0.35%) of the total amount of the sale (which includes the item price, postage, taxes and any other applicable fees), and is subject to Value Added Tax (VAT), where applicable. The fee will not be charged if you don’t list directly on the relevant sites but a buyer from one of these countries purchases your item.
Here at ChannelX, we don’t like surcharges – why for instance couldn’t the Regulatory Operating Fee simply be set as a fee increase if it’s really needed? It’s effectively a stealth fee that will operate like a final value fee but be tacked on and easy to forget that it will be charged when guesstimating what your selling costs will be. The answer is probably because it applies to the total amount of the sale (the item price, postage, taxes and any other applicable fees) and some categories still have variable fees dependant on the sale value.
It’s also worth noting that the eBay Regulatory Operating Fee Surcharge could be varied in the future (probably the only way it would ever change would be upwards) separately from standard final value fee changes.
eBay Regulatory Operating Fee Surcharge Examples
VAT inclusive
Total Sale Amount = £15 item price + £5 shipping = £20
Regulatory operating fee = 0.35% (fixed rate for UK)+ 0.07% (VAT) = 0.42% of £20 total sales = £0.08
Without VAT
Total Sale Amount = £15 item price + £5 shipping = £20
Regulatory operating fee = 0.35% (fixed rate for UK) of £20 total sales = £0.07
21 Responses
Regulatory Operating Fee ?????
strikes us as a fee skim recipe from an accountants cook book
Why are the using 7% for Uk vat in the eg?
So it’s 0.35 + 0.20 = 0.55%?
It’s not 7%.
It’s just 0.35% + 20% (or 0.35 x 1.20 = 0.42%)
So you’ll pay 0.42% as a fee. It’s £0.04p on a £10 order.
I’m not saying that charging us an additional 4p is justified in anyway, they could have just done us a favour here and absorbed this cost themselves.
By the way, Etsy have been charging a Regulatory Fee for a number of years. I’m surprised eBay have taken this long.
Another reason why sellers are moving to other platforms such as Amazon, tik tok and other more fruitful marketplaces. Ebay won’t be here in 10 years time.
The same comment was made 10 years ago. eBay is still here and still thriving. I buy and sell on it regularly
eBay take enough in fees already, especially if you are selling in the USA where they take nearly 15%. Then there’s the cross-border transaction fees for selling in other countries.
Now they decide to screw their sellers for even more money to cover the costs of reporting sales, etc, to regulatory authorities. This is basically due to the new HMRC requirements to get hold of sales data from this year onwards.
‘Regulatory Operating Fee ‘makes it sound as though it is government-imposed. It isn’t. eBay is finding another way of/excuse for creaming in the money.
Think it’s a joke they include any money on postage anyway! Postage is so expensive now (more than my tops are worth on there own sometimes) then they take a cut of the postage too? I have to put my postage costs up just to cover the fee, then no-one buys.
Think Vinted is the way forward now. eBay will start losing custom.
That’s the beggining of the end of eBay.
I’m still confused. Com I feel with more fees what’s the point in selling and feel alot of people will feel the same .my friend just called me and she’s not going to bother selling
Straight from the ‘How can we milk more profit from users and blame the charges on somebody else’ working group at eBay.
It’s a dangerous game being played out by eBay as their ‘monopoly moat’ to keep sellers on the platform is by no means guaranteed. Other cheaper rival platforms are becoming more and more available and attractive to sellers and additional charges like this merely make the tipping point to jump ship from eBay all the closer.
I use ebay less anyway. Never protects the buyer is my experience so they’re already getting less from me.
If the tax man also goes after profits from selling there to, ebay will die..Good I say
Whats next ? Shylock-bay
Transport and logistics fee
Power and heating fee?
Customer support fee
Office and administration fee ?
Yes we known from historical examples another fee charging / ramping strategy – Also every new idea even if niot stated as a fee is another way tio bump up their cut. Truth is any promise to nfix it would lso only be a lie this time they didn’t even botgher to state its fixed and wont increase because we all know it will ! its a charge on top of all the other charges – funny but seemingly small encapsulates all the other costs and adds to them then insultingly adds anoher tax to itself!
Just another way of taking more and trying to blame someone else ,just greedy barstewards taking advantage of their quite dominant position .
It always amazes me how they charge VAT on VAT? You pay VAT on the courier services and the courier costs are included in the total. The new charge is then added to the total and even more VAT is applied?
UK customs are the same. The import duty is charged included postal costs and then VAT is added to the total. We are nothing more than a herd of cows being milked for every drop.
I just really can’t understand the fuss. I sell from time to time on eBay and my biggest problem is not the commission they charge but the HUGE increase in postal charges Royal Mail are making – three increases this year alone, which I have to pass on to customers. Passing on an extra 4 pence, or losing out on 4 pence if I don’t, on my average sale of £10 pales into insignificance. Royal Mail will sink eBay, not a tiny 0.35% charge,
Vinted is so much better
No hidden fees
EBay don’t deserve loyal customers anymore
It’s time to start using Vinted and to complain to eBay about how unethical this is .
How can they legally charge VAT on used items? The company are getting worse in so many ways, they exploit so many people and have lost lawsuits for GDPR breaches. I also hate the New Instant messaging feature.
It’s infuriating because they also allow illegal items to be sold due to loopholes. Recently I found thousands of questionable child pornography being sold and they said because it’s considered “art” they can’t do anything about it. It’s quite disgusting and very telling of their lack of ethics. I had to report it on twitter to get a response because their own reporting system doesn’t actually work..dead links. eBay is truly a disappointment 👿😡😤
eBay (UK) Limited are not charging VAT on used items, because they do not sell them. They charge VAT on seller fees for use of their platform. They are legally required to do so, and like all VAT registered businesses, they do not get to keep the VAT.
How “Customs” affect sellers that sell only in the UK?!?!
Another scam fee…
If ebay was doing so good – they wouldn’t need to invent another scam fee…