eBay is updating listing policies in Australia and has rewritten its Tobacco policy. The marketplace informed sellers through an Announcement board post on Monday, explaining that it was doing so in order to streamline policy pages and align policies to other eBay sites.
eBay said it rewrote the Avoiding eBay fees policy, formerly called the Circumventing fees policy. “Some guidelines have been added regarding links that refer to, or promote, want ads and trades, payment surcharges, putting items in the wrong category and warranties,” according to the announcement. The policy advises sellers, “It’s important to pay your fees. Sometimes sellers try to avoid paying fees or they do so by mistake.”
eBay Australia retired two older policy pages (Reserve Price listing violations and Multiple listing fees avoidance). eBay also said it rewrote its Tobacco policy – “A number of policy requirements have been added, although these are implied (if not specifically mentioned) in the previous version of the policy.”
According to the tobacco policy page, the sale and advertising of cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco and related products is a matter that is highly regulated within Australia. “Because selling tobacco is highly regulated, most tobacco items can’t be sold on eBay. Be sure to follow all applicable laws, regulations, and our policies.”
Finally, eBay Australia said it has updated policies on Accepted payments, Payment surcharges, Publishing contact information and Using eBay’s intellectual property. “These pages have a newer format, but no material changes to policy requirements.”
For many years, eBay had the same policies across most of its international sites, making it very easy to keep track of its policies, but then it began allowing the management of each international site to customize features and policies. In addition, eBay often tests out features and policies in one geography before expanding it to other locations. As a result, and combined with the frequency of change on eBay, it makes it very difficult to keep track of policies on each of eBay’s sites.
In its announcement on Monday, eBay Australia said it was continuing to work on its policies. “We’ll let you know about further changes as they’re ready,” the company said.
