eBay "Sponsored Items From This Seller" Snafu - Tech Misexecution Or Dark Pattern Design?
A recent change in how eBay is displaying some Promoted Listings ads on item pages is raising concerns about whether the company is using dark pattern practices to deceive consumers or if their AI systems have simply run amok.
Longtime eBay community member WastingTime101 noticed many listings on eBay now have a section of ads titled "Sponsored Items From This Seller" - but upon further investigation, the items featured in that section are not, in fact, listings from that specific seller.
I was looking at some of my own active listings while logged in to this posting ID. I was checking how some of my shipping settings were appearing.
Upon scrolling down I found "sponsored items from this seller" with 2 rows of ads.
Problem with that? I am not using sponsored listings and none of those listings were mine. They were all from the same seller, but that seller was not me.
Headline did not say "sponsored items from a similar seller," it said "this seller," giving buyers the impression those listings are mine.
Way to go, eBay. 🤦
WastingTime101 then went on to provide multiple screenshots and examples if listings that had the "Sponsored Items From This Seller" section showing listings that were actually from different sellers.
While this section of ads is far down the page past the over 100 other ads eBay stuffs into every listing, it still raises concerns about whether consumers may be misled, as WastingTime101 points out.
There are about 4,769 sponsored ads on every listing, both above and below the description, so my assumption is most buyers will not scroll that far down and notice the 2 errors I called out (sponsored items from this seller & influenced by recent sponsored views).
So far I've only seen the problem below the fold, not above.
That said, it's sloppy, misleading, and inevitably some buyers will see it and end up confused. The only reason I noticed it (I never scroll down that far) is because I was glancing over competing ads displayed on my listing.
Other sellers agreed that it could be confusing for buyers, especially if they are looking to purchase multiple items from the same seller in order to save on shipping.
That's crazy and so confusing for buyers. What if they were looking to buy multiple items from the seller to save on shipping and then find out they agreed to buy from several different sellers instead!
When paid advertising (then called "cross-promotion") was first introduced years ago, the idea of allowing eBay to promote other sellers' items on your listings was sold as a mutually beneficial quid pro quo system - sellers who were willing to participate would allow eBay to show other seller's listings on their items and in turn would have the opportunity to have their listings displayed on other seller's items as well.
Most importantly, if you didn't want to participate, you could completely opt out - losing the supposed benefit of being promoted across eBay, but retaining complete control over your listing real estate in the process.
eBay quietly killed the opt out function in 2019 when then CEO Devin Wenig was going all in on Promoted Listings to power revenue growth. No announcements, no notice - sellers just suddenly couldn't access the settings to turn off cross promotion any more.
Since then, it is still technically optional as to whether or not you want to pay more to promote your items, but not optional to have hundreds of competitor ads shown on your listings.
eBay then tossed some crumbs to sellers, providing dedicated ad placement toward the top of the listing page for "Items From This Seller", convincing some to begrudgingly use Promoted Listings for no other reason than to win back valuable real estate on their own listings.
But that dedicated ad spot was removed in 2022 as current CEO Jamie Iannone cranked up the ratchet effect to extract even more ad revenue from every pixel on the site.
Meanwhile, eBay has still not delivered on promises made over a year ago to "bring critical information like Item specifics and seller description higher up on the page before any modules that show other items & ads" in the new View Item page design.
Liz Morton
eBay has now brought back the "Sponsored Items From This Seller" section but buried it lower on the page and, either through intentional design or technical misexecution, filled it with items that are not actually from the same seller at all.
If this is an intentional design choice, it would not be surprising given other dark pattern design practices eBay has implemented recently in efforts to trick consumers into additional post-purchase sales and sellers into using expensive cost per click advertising tools.
Liz Morton
Practices that can deceive or harm consumers often attract attention from government regulators like the FTC and once the regulators are involved, investor lawsuits may follow - just ask Amazon.
Liz Morton
eBay could soon come under increased legal and regulatory scrutiny as well with unionized workers at eBay-owned TCGPlayer filing new NLRB complaints, a historic $59 Million settlement with the DEA, ongoing litigation brought by the EPA and 3 years of enhanced compliance monitoring as part of a deferred prosecution agreement related to the 2019 cyberstalking scandal.
Amanda Lewis, Co-Founder of the Responsible Online Commerce Coalition, has also recently filed a petition with the Federal Trade Commission calling for an investigation into eBay's acquisition of TCGPlayer, citing “serious concerns about apparently deceptive and anticompetitive conduct” including illegal monopoly maintenance, anticompetitive rollups, junk fees, and competing directly with 3rd party sellers without disclosing to consumers they would be purchasing directly from eBay.
Liz Morton
If Lina Khan and others high up at the FTC want to prove they are not unduly influenced by their personal histories with eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, taking up that petition and adding a thorough review of eBay's ad practices (in line with their investigations of Amazon) would be a good place to start.
