eBay Quietly Removes Chargeback Fees For EU Countries
Did you know eBay is no longer charging sellers a chargeback fee for payment disputes in European countries?
This important change was quietly slipped into the recent Fall Update and could be a big win for sellers in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, and Belgium.
eBay
EU dispute fee removed
When: October 2022Where: EU sites
Dispute fees are no longer charged on eBay EU sites (ebay.de, ebay.fr, ebay.it, ebay.es, ebay.at, ebay.ch, ebay.ie, ebay.nl, ebay.pl, ebay.benl, ebay.befr).
When a seller handles (challenges or accepts) a payment dispute concerning their listing on an EU site, eBay won’t charge any payment dispute fee. The rest remains unchanged, sellers need to follow the eBay Seller protection policy to handle payment disputes.
From looking at archived fee pages, it appears previously eBay was charging a 16 Euro dispute fee for chargebacks in these countries. This section has now been removed from the fee pages for all listed EU eBay sites.
There's also no longer any mention of any dispute fees on the help pages for handling payment disputes for those countries.
The payment dispute fee has been a major source of frustration for sellers in the US since eBay launched Managed Payments, where the fee is $20 USD.
It's particularly problematic on lower value items - for example on a $20 item, if the payment dispute is not found in your favor, you could be out $40 plus the shipping and may not even get the item returned to you.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
Here's how eBay Payment Disputes work in the US:
Responding to a payment dispute
When responding to a dispute, you may choose to:
- Accept the dispute, or
- Challenge the dispute
Accepting the payment dispute
If you agree with the buyer, or you’d prefer not to challenge the payment dispute, you can accept the dispute......When you accept the payment dispute, the amount will generally be paid from the total of your Available, Processing, and On hold funds. If you don’t have enough funds to cover the cost of the refund, the amount will be paid from your on-file payment method. We’ll close the payment dispute once the buyer's payment institution confirms the refund. We’ll also waive the dispute fee and you'll receive fee credits for some or all of your fees for the disputed transaction.
Challenging the payment dispute
If you don't agree with the buyer, you can challenge the payment dispute and provide some supporting evidence to help resolve the issue......When you challenge the payment dispute, the final outcome will be decided by the buyer’s payment institution. The payment dispute could take up to 90 days or more to be resolved, depending on the payment method or card provider. eBay may hold the funds from payout up to 30 days from when the dispute arises.
If the dispute is found in your favor, you won't be charged for a refund and you won’t have to pay a dispute fee.
If the dispute is found in the buyer's favor, they’ll receive a refund. Whether you're charged for the refund and whether you have to pay a dispute fee depends on whether you're eligible for our payment dispute seller protections. You won't be charged more than one dispute fee per order, even if your buyer has used multiple forms of payment.
If you’re not eligible for seller protections, the refund amount will generally be deducted from the total of your Available, Processing, and On hold funds, and you’ll be charged a dispute fee. If you are eligible for seller protections, you won’t be charged the refund amount and we may also waive or refund the dispute fee.
Some seller protections may apply to avoid the dispute fee, but it depends on the situation.
Chargeback fees are not unique to eBay, most payment processors have similar fees in place for payment disputes, but it is interesting that eBay has chosen to stop charging those fees in certain countries but not others.
Are there regulations specific to the EU that may be in play or is it possible eBay is testing this in smaller markets and may consider expanding the fee waiver to other countries in the future?
Let us know about your experiences with eBay Managed Payments chargeback disputes in the comments below!
