Since April 1st, private sellers on eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie who have a feedback score of less than 25 are automatically limited to 100 auction listings. On top of that, any private sellers with a high volume of auctions are going to be reviewed by eBay's Customer Support -- and depending on their feedback score and the quality of the items they're selling, they might be forced to upgrade to business status or be banned from selling on eBay altogether.
These same rules apply to international sellers who list their auction items directly on the eBay.co.uk or eBay.ie sites.
(eBay.com sellers take note -- what happens on eBay.co.uk usually gets rolled out on eBay.com a few months later, so these rules may apply to you sometime in the near future!)
Why did eBay implement this rule?
According to eBay, after they introduced the zero insertion fees for auctions starting with a bid price of 99p/99c or less, they noticed that some sellers were taking advantage of the lower fees by listing large volumes of low-quality goods, creating a "poor experience for other other buyers and sellers."
So in order to make sure these sellers don't continue to flood the eBay marketplace with goods that disappoint buyers by not living up to their promise, eBay has limited the number of items they can sell.
Why is eBay thinking about making them register as a business?
In the UK, every seller has a legal obligation to identify themselves as businesses rather than an individual if they are buying or making items specifically to resell them to consumers.
By requiring these sellers to register as businesses, eBay is helping to ensure that buyers who purchase something from them will be entitled to the legal protection available in the UK for consumers who buy from businesses. Also, the sellers will be required to include their business address as well as their returns policy. This is so buyers will understand what they're getting into when they make a purchase, and will be able to easily distinguish which sellers are individuals and which are businesses.
Legitimate sellers who aren't trying to scam people shouldn't have anything to worry about. In fact, if you register as a business, you will even be able to take advantage of special discounts eBay offers to businesses.
Are you an eBay seller in the UK? If so, let us know how this change has affected your business.
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