Sellers Fear eBay Facebook Marketplace Listings May Increase INAD Claims Due To Erroneous AI Summaries
Users are starting to see eBay Facebook Marketplace partnership listings in the wild but erroneous item details added by eBay AI description summary raise serious questions about liability for false advertising and seller protection for Item Not As Described claims.
Meta announced the new integration allowing competing platforms access to Facebook Marketplace in January in an attempt to appease EU and US regulators, originally tapping eBay to be their first test subject in a move that sent eBay's stock soaring to a new 52 week high.
Liz Morton
Sellers have been waiting to see how their listings will be displayed on Facebook ever since, with only a few mockup pictures provided by both eBay and Meta to hint at how this partnership will work.
eBay has promised sellers that since the transaction will still be happening completely within the eBay ecosystem, they will still receive the same protections as any transaction directly on the site itself.
How am I protected from bad buyer behavior or situations outside of my control for listings sold through Facebook Marketplace?
Because these transactions will be handled completely through eBay, you’ll receive all the same protections that you’re used to as an eBay seller, including protections against negative feedback.
But will that cover any Item Not Described claims resulting from eBay's use of AI to provide a summarized version of the description for the Facebook listing - even if that summary contains incorrect information not actually included in the seller's description?
Value Added Resource reader Patricia found an eBay Facebook Marketplace listing in the wild and was understandably concerned about the fact the description is credited to eBay.AI which appears to have hallucinated details not actually provided by the seller.
Just saw a FBMP placement of an eBay listing; said the description was summarized by ebay AI. Went to that listing on ebay and see the FBMP description included items in its description not listed on the actual ebay listing Title, Item Specifics, or description. WTF eBay?
— Pat(ricia) (@materialculture) April 16, 2025
Patricia was kind enough to provide screenshots showing what the eBay Facebook Marketplace listing looked like.
It includes the icon and buttons indicating this is a Facebook Marketplace Partner listing and the checkout process will be completed on eBay, just like the mockups from both companies showed - and it's also interesting to note the part that says "Facebook may receive a commision on this sale."
That falls in line with Facebook's announcement that after an initial fee-free period, marketplace partners using this product will have to pay for the ads on a cost per click basis - which could mean that cost may eventually be passed on to eBay sellers.
Importantly, this example also shows a disclaimer from eBay saying the description is a summary provided by eBay AI.
eBay.AI shows the first sentence of the summarized description as "25 racing decal grab bag vintage."
But if you go to the actual listing, that sentence does not appear anywhere on the page and the seller does not mention anything about racing decals in either the description or item specifics.
So who would be responsible if a buyer were to complete this purchase, expecting vintage racing decals to be included, and then file an item not as described claim?
Sellers have already been airing concerns that the Facebook partnership would result in an influx of lowball offers and wasted time fielding messages asking of items are still available.
Are EBay messages like this the FB effect or a new feature?
by u/Ok-Geologist-3987 in Flipping
But now there's an even bigger concern that eBay's use of AI summaries for this feature will result in INAD claims, returns, and negative feedback - all of which eBay is unlikely to take responsibility for or protect sellers against if experience with eBay's other AI products is any indicator.
As companies further insert AI into every facet of the user experience, questions about liability continue.
In a recent example on Etsy, a buyer left a seller a negative review because the cake they sold was not vegan, but the seller had not advertised it as vegan and in fact stated clearly in the description the cake contained milk and eggs.
The erroneous - and potentially consumer harming - information showing that item in a search for "vegan cake" was entirely produced and published by Etsy's own LLM powered search algorithm.
Liz Morton
The idea of marketplace liability is nothing new of course - since the dawn of the internet and ecommerce, legislators and regulatory agencies across the globe have wrestled with the subject, especially when it comes to sites like Etsy and eBay which historically have leaned on the fact they are "just a venue" for items sold by third party sellers.
While that "just a venue" stance is no longer true for eBay, it hasn't stopped them from forwarding that argument to defend themselves against a lawsuit brought by the US Department of Justice on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency, seeking to hold the company liable for illegal chemicals, pesticides and emissions control cheat devices sold on the platform.
U.S. District Judge Orelia Merchant agreed with eBay, dismissing the case in a ruling stating that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 protects eBay from liability for items sold by 3rd parties on their site.
The DOJ had filed an intent to appeal that ruling last year, but has since requested and been granted additional time to decide whether or not they will move forward.
Liz Morton
Walmart is also pursuing a Section 230 defense trying to duck liability for massive organized retail crime, theft and fraud facilitated through their marketplace in a class action lawsuit filed against the company last year.
The victims of this sophisticated triangulation fraud scheme allege Walmart profits from and fails to prevent the digital shoplifting, saying the company is complicit in the crimes as they knowingly recruit and do not properly vet fraudulent sellers from China and have not taken action to stop the fraud even after it was reported to them.
Liz Morton
Corporations have very little incentive to do anything beyond Minimum Viable Compliance box checking exercises when they know they are legally insulated from liability and can afford to keep litigation tied up for years should anyone try to challenge the status quo.
Unfortunately, the current legal and regulatory framework has so far allowed these multi-billion dollar tech giants to avoid accountability for illegal, misleading or consumer-harming activity on their sites.
Section 230 states:
No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.
The eBay.AI description summary poses an interesting question - can companies be held liable when information does not come from another information content provider but rather from LLMs or other technology the company has put in place between sellers and buyers on their platforms?
Remember, nothing in any of the seller-provided item details for this eBay listing said anything about vintage racing decals - that specific part of the "content" was wholly and solely created and published by eBay using their own eBay branded AI technology.
That sure sounds like eBay should be considered the publisher of that content, and potentially liable for any resulting consumer claims of false or misleading advertising, and it will be interesting to see if challenges to Section 230 protection for marketplaces are raised along those lines as Congress and the courts continue to grapple with the future of Section 230 this year.
Etsy, eBay, Amazon, Walmart and other marketplaces can of course be expected to fight tooth and nail to preserve Section 230 as a "get out of liability free card."
If they lose, not only could they be subject to massive regulatory fines and product liability lawsuits, but it could also expose just how much of their publicly reported Gross Merchandise Volume/Sales over the years has been built on fraud, counterfeits and other illegal activity, potentially impacting stock prices and leading to shareholder action or SEC investigations as well.
In fact, eBay's Government Relations team recently visited Illinois lawmakers specifically to lobby against a proposed law which seeks to hold marketplaces as well as sellers responsible for product liability claims and they also continue to lobby at the federal level to keep Section 230 protections in place.
What do you think of eBay using AI to summarize descriptions for Facebook Marketplace Partner listings? Let us know in the comments below!
