eBay Ireland Updates User Agreement To Comply With Digital Services Act
eBay has updated their user agreement for users in Ireland for the first time since June 2021, with changes effective February 11, 2024 to comply with new legislation as a result of the Digital Services Act.
A summary of the changes was provided to users in a post in the eBay UK community.
We wanted to let you know that we’re updating our User Agreement, effective from 11 February 2024. The updates mainly reflect changes required by new legislation as a result of the Digital Services Act.
You can find our complete new User Agreement here. Some of the key additions to the agreement are:
- A list of all identity verification information required from business sellers
- Details of how you can resolve disputes on eBay
- An explanation of how we offer you personalised recommendations
- More information on how eBay users and third parties can report listings or content on eBay that they consider illegal
Our current User Agreement will remain effective until 10 February 2024.
The previous agreement had been in effect since 1 June 2021, so aside from additions for the Digital Service Act, most of the changes involve updating language to remove old references to PayPal in and insert new information for eBay Managed Payments since the payments transition has been completed.
Users are encouraged to read the entire updated agreement carefully, but here are a few excerpts highlighting some important changes and additions:
Identity verification requirements for business sellers
eBay added this additional language to provide detail about verification requirement for business sellers.
If you are registering with eBay as a business entity or on behalf of a business entity, you represent that you have the authority to legally bind that entity, and you must provide your name.
If you are trading as a business on eBay, you must comply with all applicable laws relating to online trading for the site you are selling on. When registering as natural persons, only individual persons may be listed as owners of the eBay account (i.e. no married couples or families).
Upon request by eBay, traders must submit at least the following information and documents to eBay to comply with mandatory legal requirements:
- name, address, telephone number and email address
- copy of an identification document or other electronic identification as defined in Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 910/2014
- bank account details
- if the seller is registered in a trade register or similar public register, the trade register in which the seller is registered and the registration number or equivalent means of identification in that register
- and self-certification by the seller committing to only offer products or services that comply with the applicable legal provisions.
Traders are only permitted to use the eBay Services when the information and documents listed above are provided and there is no reason for eBay to believe that they are not reliable or complete. eBay may also request the information and documents listed above from consumers if required to comply with legal requirements.
Personalized recommendations
This section was added to provided information about how eBay may provided personalized recommendations to users.
Note the specific call out of "expected monetization of the item", which would included all of the various eBay Promoted Listings advertising options by which eBay monetizes listings to earn additional revenue above and beyond the standard final value fees.
eBay may offer personalised recommendations to users to provide them with a relevant and engaging experience to help them sell or buy items of interest to them.
These recommendations may be based on data related to their eBay activity, including:
- their search and usage behaviour, purchasing history and the eBay sites, sub-pages, and categories they are using
- the item's location and the possibility of delivery to the buyer's location, listing format, price, shipping cost, selling terms, shipping options, listing end time, listing history, and relevance to your search query
- the seller's history, including the seller's listing practices, sales history, Feedback, and ratings
- expected monetization of the item
- the number of listings matching your search query
- marketplace seasonality, events, deals, and trends
- and interest in this or similar items from similar users.
To learn more about how we provide you with a personalised experience, please visit our help page here. You can adjust the settings for the usage of your eBay activity for customised sponsored recommendations here.
Reporting listings or content believed to be illegal
eBay covers themselves by making it clear they are obligated to proactively check contact posted on the site, but may choose to do so voluntarily on its own initiative and that they are entitled to take appropriate action on those initiatives.
In addition to the Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) programme and the Regulatory Portal set up for law enforcement, eBay will now also be taking reports on a priority basis from "trusted flaggers" under the Digital Services Act.
Users should pay close attention to the highlighted section below which states in situations where content moderation or restriction decisions are determined by "automated means" (rather than human review), eBay will disclose the use of automation in most cases.
eBay is generally not obligated to proactively check the content posted by users for its legality or compatibility with the rights of third parties, eBay's terms and conditions or eBay's policies. eBay is nonetheless entitled to carry out voluntary checks on its own initiative to identify and determine illegal or incompatible content and to take appropriate measures in accordance with paragraph 10.7.
eBay provides the following mechanisms for notifying eBay electronically of allegedly illegal content:
All eBay users as well as third parties have the possibility to report listings and other content to eBay via a notice. This notice is accessible via a corresponding button. More information about this notification function can be found here.
Owners of intellectual property rights, such as copyrights, trademark rights and other commercial property rights, have the option to participate in eBay's "Verified Rights Owner Program" (VeRO) for this purpose, which allows them to quickly and easily submit notices about listings that they claim to infringe one or more of their intellectual property rights. More information about the VeRO programme can be found here and at paragraph 20.10.
Market surveillance, monitoring and law enforcement authorities that are explicitly authorised by eBay can report listings via eBay's Regulatory Portal. More information about the Regulatory Portal can be found here.
Trusted flaggers who have been granted a corresponding status by the Digital Service Coordinator of the competent Member State also have access to the respective notice mechanisms according to paragraph 10.3. The reports of trusted flaggers will generally be treated with priority and processed and decided on without undue delay.
In case of a notice according to paragraphs 10.3(a) and 10.3(b), eBay has the right to forward the content of the notice as well as the data submitted with the notice to the user who has posted the reported content. The identity of the notifying person will be disclosed to the user only where this is strictly necessary, and permitted under applicable law.
In the context of its voluntary checks as per paragraph 10.2 and the notices under paragraph 10.3, eBay uses various procedures and tools to identify, review and moderate the content. This may include human review, automated review, or a combination of human and automated review, depending on the individual case. Further information about the technologies eBay uses as part of automated reviews can be found here.
Whenever automated means have been used to review content with eBay subsequently taking action with respect to that content, eBay will inform the user who uploaded the content about the use of automated means to the extent that eBay's and its users' legitimate interests do not preclude this.
eBay may take one or more of the following actions (at its discretion) if the content uploaded by a user infringes the applicable laws, the rights of third parties, eBay's terms and conditions, or eBay's policies:
- warn the user
- remove bids, listings, ratings or other content that violate the law, rights of third parties or contracts/policies
- block access to listings, ratings or other content
- hide content, inter alia on search results pages
- decrease the visibility of content (i.e. demoting content)
- delay the publication of listings and other content
- restrict use of eBay Services, in particular buying activities, selling activities and the ability to upload content
- withdraw special seller status or
- temporary or permanent suspension of the eBay account.
eBay also has the right to take these actions for and through eBay affiliates
How will these changes impact your eBay business? Let us know in the comments below!
