Members may not use systems or techniques to circumvent or avoid paying eBay fees. Sellers should review the examples below to ensure they're not engaging in any practices that circumvent eBay fees.
Breaches of this policy can result in a range of actions, including:
Listing cancellation
Forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings
Limits on account privileges
Loss of PowerSeller status
Account suspension
Spend a few minutes taking eBay's tutorial on Fee Circumvention.
Offers to transact outside eBay - Offering the opportunity to purchase the item or other merchandise outside the eBay online marketplace.
Unreasonable postage or packing costs - Listings with low prices but unreasonably high postage or packing costs.
Listings with additional purchases - Listing an item that requires or offers an additional purchase. For example, travel documents that require the holder to buy or pay for something (such as a hotel room for seven nights) as a condition of receiving the benefit of the coupon (such as free or discounted airfare).
Multiple Item Listing (Dutch) Avoidance - Listing a single item and offering additional identical items for sale in the item description. In these situations, the seller typically instructs buyers to indicate the number of items they want, and states that they can get the same price as the item in the listing.
Email address, phone number or domain name in the title, subtitle or item location - Listings with an email address or domain name in the title. Exception: This will be permissible only in listings that are offering a domain name for sale.
Catalogue Sales - Listings of catalogues from which buyers may directly order items are prohibited. In these situations, the seller will typically offer the catalogue for low bid prices and complete sales outside the eBay online marketplace for items found in the catalogue. Old (from which you can no longer place an order) or collectible catalogues are permissible. Please see the complete catalogue policy for more details.
Reserve Fee Avoidance - Cancelling bids and ending a listing early because the seller's desired price has not been met.
Extension of Auctions - eBay listings (both 'auctions' and fixed-price listings) have a fixed duration. eBay may on rare occasions (for example, as the result of a site outage) extend the duration of a listing. Extension of listing duration by a seller, via either the site or the use of automated tools, is not permitted. Extension of listings by a seller for any reason is not only a form of fee avoidance, but also creates a poor finding experience for buyers.
To report a listing that circumvents eBay fees through an offer outside the eBay online marketplace, unreasonably high postage or packing costs, Multiple Item (Dutch) listing avoidance, or a catalogue sales breach, contact us with the item number.
To report a listing that a seller ended early in breach of our reserve fee avoidance policy, contact us with the item number you would like us to review.
Although there are legitimate reasons for ending a listing early, we'll investigate sellers who abuse this option.
Note: Posts made in the Want It Now area must also comply with this policy. Want It Now posts that are in breach of this policy may be removed. Repeated breaches may result in suspension. You can report a Want It Now breach of this policy from the Want It Now Policies page.
Why does eBay have this policy?
Listings that circumvent (avoid) fees may provide a poor buying experience and create an unlevel playing field by putting sellers who pay all their eBay fees at a disadvantage. Furthermore, these listings undermine the trust and legitimacy of our online marketplace.
