eBay congratulated members of its Main Street program for their efforts to defeat the Shop Safe Act, which eBay said would have pitted sellers against the largest brands in the world by making them “guilty until proven innocent.”
In an email to members, eBay wrote “We are happy to report that, due in part to the almost 25,000 US Main Street Members who took the time to contact their members of Congress, the SHOP SAFE Act was ultimately not included in the CHIPS and Science Act that was signed into law at the beginning of August.”
eBay Main Street is a “global grassroots action network that keeps you informed and engaged on public policy issues that affect ecommerce” and is part of eBay’s Government Relations unit, which also runs the eBay Small Business Ambassador Network. The eBay Main Street website states there are nearly one million members (971,074) – presumably worldwide.
In this week’s email, eBay said it believes the threat of legislation is not over, telling sellers, “we believe the fight against SHOP SAFE and other attempts to regulate sellers will continue.” It thanked members for taking action, writing, “your voice was heard and made a difference!”
eBay was not alone in opposing the Shop Safe Act – Craigslist, Etsy, HobbyDB, Mercari, OfferUp, Poshmark, and Shopify also lobbied Congress, as we reported in March. SHOP SAFE was an acronym for “Stopping Harmful Offers on Platforms by Screening Against Fakes in E-commerce.”
Be nice if they put that much effort into raising shipping rates