Is eBays New Requirement to Ditch PayPal and Use Their Internal Payment Method Legal?

Just wondering if Ebay has the right to force existing users to switch to their internal payment system.

Those that don't, automatically have their account suspended.

Also, users have to supply Ebay with a DL or Passport number (as well as something called a Government number).

I remember when they enforced Paypal, there were objections with this practice from the ACCC (or a similar body).

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Comments

  • +9

    It's eBay's sandpit and if you want to play in it then they set the rules. Suffice to say they would have all legal angles well covered

    • +2

      Suffice to say they would have all legal angles well covered

      What are you talking about, it's standard operating procedure for the largest businesses in Australia to flout the law. The only penalty they ever face is a financial penalty less than the profit they make.

  • Introducing managed payments on eBay

    Accepted payment methods
    Your buyers can choose from any of the following payment methods:

    Credit or debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express)
    PayPal
    Apple Pay
    Google Pay
    Afterpay

  • +6

    I wouldn't be too worried as a buyer, just as a seller. With no payment platform in between (like paypal) they can just refund the buyer at their discretion ignoring any appeal from sellers. I'm not continuing with my ebay store.

    • +1

      It's an improvement for buyers, more payment options.
      Definitely not good for sellers, though PayPal wasn't particularly kind to sellers either

  • +17

    I've found I'm using eBay less and less.

    • +2

      Yeah I've never used it anymore. To sell or buy.

  • If you are a big seller can you use a merchant credit account to receive credit card payments?

  • +3

    Just a small seller, I've got only 1 item left for sale on eBay and when it's gone that'll be the last thing I'll ever sell there.

    With eBay's high fees and lack of seller protection it'll only be the big multi stores Chinese who will be using their platform.

    • -5

      I have only been a Member of eBay since Apr, 1999.

      Never been a PowerSeller or nothin'

      I'd sell Bumper Stickers with "Groucho was Right!"

      Honestly if I as a Seller was going to rip off a buyer I would have done it by now.

      • +7

        What does that have to do with anything

        • It is a cry for help.

  • +4

    paypal are scum, gladly jump ship

  • +5

    Its shit honestly, Have to pay so much fees now, cant even get the advertised promotions properly, Always have to chat with them to have the fees removed.

    Furthermore, its so much harder now to sell properly because they demand things like government ID etc. and i am think they gonna start banning duplicate accounts now, which is going to be the biggest downside. Already reducing seller power when having to put the same ID on so many eBay accounts for selling purposes.

    ALSO not to forget the biggest downside, CANT GET THE MONEY INSTANTLY NOW IN PAYPAL

  • +2

    no different to selling on amazon, catch, kogan and others.
    they all handle payments.
    Its standard. Might be new for some sellers on ebay, but you'll get used to it.

    If those who decide to leave, well their competitors will simply get the sale not them.

    Ive had no issues using it.

  • +1

    For most categories, I noticed eBay managed payments fees are more expensive than eBay FVF + PayPal merchant fees combined. I was under assumption before the rollout that fees would be cheaper as PayPal was excluded from the transcation but I guess I was wrong.

  • amazon amazon amazon

    • +3

      Doesn't help private sellers

    • +2

      Amazon is worse, they own the marketplace and they even sell in that marketplace. They use the data from sellers then bring out their own line on products that make good margins. Atleast eBay is not selling and bringing in local companies into their marketplace.

      • +4

        They use the data from sellers then bring out their own line on products that make good margins.

        And if you are successful, they even go directly to your supplier and cut you out…

  • I had a feeling that if they took away compulsory paypal fees, they would just increase the final value fee.

  • Merged from eBay Seller Payment Policy Update - Payments into Bank Accounts - Identification Required

    So eBay have introduced a new policy that has some improvements regarding the way sellers get paid.

    • Sellers provide their bank account
    • Payments received are paid into bank accounts within 2 business days
    • Fees / charges are deducted before payment
    • Driver's license / identification is requested and mandatory

    I suppose the only downsides are that funds take longer to receive and tax implications for sellers mean that prices might go up because sellers are required to officially identify themselves and potentially declare income from items sold so that the government takes their cut (if details are provided to ATO which I assume will be the case).

    Emails are being sent to anyone who hasn't provided their details punishing them by not allowing them to relist / edit / create new listings until rectified.

    On the plus side there will be less fraud because sellers will have to provide ID and there will be no bill shock when selling because fees are deducted from the sale amount.

    Would the OzB community say that they are generally happy with these changes ?

    • I don't see how there will be less fraud. Buyers won't be able to see that ID (and couldn't really do anything even if they could see it).

      • That's not what I mean - if sellers need to be verified then the likelihood that someone will rip you off after verifying themselves is going to be quite low because eBay can easily identify them if there is a dispute ?

        Essentially no more anonymous accounts ?

        • I think I see what you mean now. By fraud you mean people stealing accounts right? And they can't get money from spamming listings of loads of non existent items as they would need to change bank accounts (not just PayPal accounts) and therefore need new ID?

          • @Quantumcat: Have you read my posts ?

            • @Altitud: Only these two comments, I don't see any others on this thread.

              If this isn't what you meant - do you mean people won't be able to rip ebay off…..?

              • @Quantumcat: Nothing to do with stealing accounts…

                They need to be verified with a valid ID.

                Right now people are able to scam others by creating fake accounts under fake names and fake details.

                They then list an item that is a really good deal to get money and then do a runner.

                If they have to provide valid ID and get verified then they can't make fake accounts anymore and therefore this type of scam is decreased.

                Buyers will be able to buy anonymously but sellers will not be able to sell anonymously.

                I thought my comments made this quite clear - apologies to anyone who also didn't get it.

                • @Altitud: Being anonymous or not isn't going to change anything. Buyers can't see any difference and ebay aren't going to go to the police off their own bat (hard enough to even get them to look at any evidence you have in disputes). The only thing it will change (about people selling under their own account not a hacked one) is ebay not getting ripped off as often as they can send debt collectors after you more easily if they know your real name (unless you can show you've been a victim of identity fraud or something).

                  • @Quantumcat: Yeah I disagree. Buyers don't need to see any differences. Sellers are now accountable. I'm surprised you still don't get it so I will try to break it down for you so you can see it more clearly:

                    HISTORICAL PROCESS

                    1 - Seller makes account using fake details
                    2 - Seller puts up iPhones for $400
                    3 - People go crazy for cheap iPhones and 30 buyers buy 30 of them
                    4 - Seller takes $12000 in PayPal payments
                    5 - Seller creates fake e-parcels with tracking numbers and submits to eBay
                    6 - Buyer thinks their iPhone is on the way
                    7 - Seller has already transferred the money out to some other account and withdraws it somewhere overseas
                    8 - Buyers don't receive their iphones and are out of pocket while eBay chases a non existent person

                    NEW PROCESS

                    1 - Seller makes an account and MUST provide their ID and a bank account number
                    2 - Seller puts up iPhones for $400
                    3 - People go crazy for cheap iPhones and 30 buyers buy 30 of them
                    4 - Seller takes $12000 in payments to a LOCAL AUSTRALIAN BANK ACCOUNT
                    5 - Seller creates fake e-parcels with tracking numbers and submits to eBay
                    6 - Buyer thinks their iPhone is on the way
                    7 - Seller transfers the money out of AU bank account
                    8 - Buyers don't receive their iPhones and are out of pocket - HOWEVER, eBay has verified seller's Drivers License / Passport and Australian Bank Account information.

                    In order for a scammer to be able to do any of the above anonymously they would have to:

                    1 - Steal someone's identity information because eBay verify through an online database
                    2 - Open up a new bank account in their name requiring 100 points of identification / email and contact numbers that match

                    These 2 steps above are very hard to do compared to historical process and therefore the likelihood that anyone will get scammed is exponentially lower than historical process.

                    In terms of eBay's responsibility - they are now able to provide police with so much more information than before:

                    1 - Australian Bank Account details
                    2 - Drivers License / Passport Information

                    This is more than enough for police to properly investigate - where before they had diddly squat and didn't even have any motivation to pursue.

                    • @Altitud: Ebay are not going to go to police, they will not care. Neither would the police even if they did. Buyer will submit a dispute, eBay will refund them. No difference to buyers. Only now ebay can give debt collectors more information and have a better chance of getting some of their (ebay's) money back.
                      The banks may or may not do anything when someone opens a bank account, receives a lot of money and transfers it out and closes the account, but if you saw the thread about the guy who was buying a house, and a hacker/fraudster compromised the conveyencer's email to send different bank details to OP, and OP sent $200k to the fraudsters who moved the money and closed the account, and NAB told OP they couldn't tell the identity of who opened the account or why they allowed such an obviously dodgy transfer to go through —- you can see most fraudsters operating at a lower level than that will probably have an easy ride. Providing details won't be an obstacle, will just make it a bit easier for ebay to recover money with debt collectors if they use their real ID.

                      • @Quantumcat: You're still not reading any of what I have typed. This isn't about other scams or how some guy managed to scam some other guy in some extreme low percentage possibility.

                        This is about scammers being able to anonymously quickly and easily do a grab and dash.

                        It's definitely an obstacle….

                        If I'm a scammer - and I want to scam someone.

                        eBay are now asking me for valid license or passport and an AU bank account. That will put off majority of scammers including me.

                        This… is… an… obstacle…

                        What can I possibly provide ???

                        When you say that scammers will simply move on to a different scam (such as stealing identities or hacking accounts to change details) it actually proves what I am saying even more. It means that eBay have created an obstacle which is so much of an obstacle that scammers must now use an alternative method to do scams.

                        • @Altitud: It is a psychological obstacle that would only trip up newbie scammers who don't know how ebay works yet. Won't actually stop anything.

                          • @Quantumcat: So tell me what the pro scammers would do ?

                            • @Altitud: Use IDs from unwitting gumtree bank tranferers and open new bank accounts in company names.

                              Probably that isn't even needed, I bet you could just input variations of your name (eg with middle initial, middle initial with dot after, first name as initial etc) and the ebay bots would not pick up that it was the same person. And you could just use various ID to verify yourself as normal.

  • Is eBays New Requirement to Ditch PayPal and Use Their Internal Payment Method Legal?

    Yes. It is…

  • Hope they get done properly! I fell victim to the gone missing java script complain button. Now they force me to use afterpay and lock me out on larger purchases.
    My money their loss!

  • I think it's quite gross that Ebay are asking for such a large amount of personal information. I am a small casual seller and I've had my account restricted as I hadn't updated to the new system. They want me to include information such as my driver's licence and I won't be doing that. I have no faith in their systems ability to keep my information safe and I don't view the risk to be worthy of the reward for a tiny seller such as myself.

    I won't be selling on Ebay anymore.

    • Agree. Specially because they can submit all of your historical sales to the ATO. Imagine having to pay tax on something that you sold 7 years ago… Horrible stuff.

      Anyone planning to sell on eBay from now on - make a new account !

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