Ebay - New International Selling Agreement Conditions...

[hathorcat]

Everyone else may have seen this but its been about 2 or 3 weeks since I listed on ebay...is this new International Selling Policy something which others have come across...literally it came up as I was listing something for sale [I always have an international option and have done nothing different]...anyone else had this suddenly happen to them?


Apologies for the GIANT copy/paste...there was even more but I have just copied the first section....


Thank you!





International Selling Agreement
 
Please read this Agreement carefully before proceeding to list your item.  You are receiving this Agreement because either:
·         you are listing an item for sale on an eBay site other than your eBay site of registration (for example, you are registered with www.ebay.co.uk but are listing an item for sale on www.ebay.com); and/or
·         you are listing an item for sale with an international shipping option (such as worldwide shipping), which may result in your item being sold to a buyer on an eBay site other than the eBay site where you are listing your item for sale.
You must agree to these additional terms and conditions before you will be allowed to list items for sale on eBay sites other than your eBay site of registration and/or list items for sale with an international shipping option (such as worldwide shipping).
 
PARTIES.  If you have a PayPal account, this Agreement is between:
·         You;
·         eBay – specifically, the operator of the eBay site where you sell your item, if not your own eBay site of registration.  For items sold on eBay.com, you are contracting with eBay Inc.  For items sold on any of eBay’s E.U. sites, you are contracting with eBay Europe S.à.r.l.  For items sold on eBay.in, you are contracting with eBay India Pvt. Ltd.  For items sold on an eBay site outside of the U.S., E.U., and India, you are contracting with eBay International AG; and,
·         PayPal – specifically, the PayPal entity with which you have entered into a User Agreement to receive the PayPal Services.  For example, if your PayPal account is registered in the European Union, you are contracting with PayPal (Europe) S.à.r.l. & Cie, S.C.A.
If you do not have a PayPal account, then this Agreement is between you and eBay only.
 
APPLICATION TO ALL CURRENT AND FUTURE LISTINGS.  This Agreement will apply to all of your active or “live” eBay listings, including Good ‘Til Cancelled listings, and any future listings that you list on an eBay site other than your eBay site of registration and/or list with an international shipping option (such as worldwide shipping).  If at any time after accepting this Agreement you no longer want these terms and conditions to apply to future eBay listings, then all you have to do is refrain from listing additional items on an eBay site other than your eBay site of registration and/or refrain from listing additional items with an international shipping option.  Also, if at any time after accepting this Agreement you no longer want these terms and conditions to apply to your already active or “live” listings that you listed on eBay sites other than your eBay site of registration and/or with international shipping options, then you must end those listings in accordance with the listing site’s policy for ending listings early.  For example, if you listed your item on www.ebay.co.uk, the U.K. eBay site’s policy would apply, but if you listed your item on www.ebay.com, the U.S. eBay site’s policy would apply.
 
PAYMENT HOLD NOTICE: PAYPAL FUNDS FROM YOUR U.S. AND CANADA EBAY SITE SALES MAY BE UNAVAILABLE FOR A PERIOD OF TIME.   For items that you sell on the U.S. and/or Canada eBay sites and for which you are paid through PayPal, you accept this paragraph as PayPal’s notice, and agree, that:
a)      If PayPal believes that there is a risk associated with you, your PayPal account, or any or all of your PayPal transactions, then pursuant to the “Payment Hold” section of your PayPal User Agreement, PayPal may hold the funds you receive into your PayPal account from each of your transactions on the U.S. or Canada eBay sites for up to 21 days, or in some instances longer.  You may view the text of the “Payment Hold” section that applies to your PayPal account in your respective PayPal User Agreement.
b)      PayPal will consider a number of factors in evaluating if there is a risk, such as if eBay considers you to be a seller who does not meet certain seller standards, or you are a new PayPal customer and/or eBay seller or have a limited customer/seller history with PayPal and/or eBay.  You may review additional information about the circumstances under which payments will not be immediately available for items you sell on the U.S. eBay site here and for items you sell on the Canada eBay site here.
c)      If you use a PayPal account registered in a country outside of the European Union, you agree that the PayPal entity that operates the PayPal website where you registered your PayPal account, in its sole discretion, may place a hold on any or all of the payments you receive when it believes there may be a high level of risk associated with you, your account, or any or all of your transactions, to the extent and for so long as reasonably needed to protect against the risk of liability; that this may in turn suspend, block, limit, close or cancel access to PayPal’s services (such as limiting access to any of your funding sources, and your ability to send money, make withdrawals, or remove financial information); that its determination may be based on a number of different factors and may rely on information it receives from its third party partners, such as eBay; that, if it places a hold on a payment, the payment will show as "pending" in your account; that, if it places a hold on any or all of the payments you receive, it will provide you with notice of this action; that it will normally give you advance notice of any suspension or cancellation but may, if it is reasonable to do so, (for example, if you are in breach of its user agreement with you or it considers it advisable for security reasons), suspend or cancel your right to use your payment instrument without prior notice to you; that it will release the hold on any payment after 21 days from the date the payment was received into your account, unless you receive a dispute, claim, chargeback, or reversal or it takes another action permitted under its user agreement with you; that it may, in its sole discretion, release the hold earlier under certain circumstances, for example, if you have uploaded tracking information; and that it may continue holding the payment in your account if you receive a dispute, claim, chargeback, or reversal, until the matter is resolved pursuant to its user agreement with you.
 
EBAY BUYER PROTECTION POLICY.  For items sold to buyers on eBay sites other than your eBay site of registration and that have eBay Buyer Protection policies, you agree to be bound by those other eBay sites’ respective eBay Buyer Protection policies, which may be different from the eBay Buyer Protection policy (if any) on your own eBay site of registration.  Among other terms and conditions, if a dispute arises and cannot be resolved between you as a seller and your buyer, eBay will resolve the buyer’s complaint pursuant to the eBay Buyer Protection policy on the eBay site where your item was sold.  This includes being liable to eBay for any and all amounts refunded to your buyer under that site’s eBay Buyer Protection policy.  To view a list of the eBay sites with eBay Buyer Protection policies, as well as the terms of those policies, please click here.
 
LISTING FEE REFUNDS.  If an eBay Buyer Protection policy dispute is resolved in favour of your buyer and your buyer receives a payment under the eBay Buyer Protection policy governing the eBay site where your item was sold, unless you have voluntarily given your buyer a refund you will not receive a refund of your listing fees from eBay.

[cobalte]

Basically what I took from this with the agreement:
1. You agree to PayPal potentially putting holds on your account
2. eBay can refund your buyer with their local Buyer Protection Policy
3. If a case goes in favour of your buyer, unless you have voluntarily given the refund, no refunds of listing fees.

The most of this is just putting in policy what eBay seems to have been doing for the past few months or years, it pretty much means if you agree to it you can't really dispute anything like the fund holds elsewhere...

[hathorcat]

So simply put ebay are finally actually formalising what they have been doing?

[cobalte]

Looks like it... we've heard cases already in TS about PayPal holds and the like during the last 12 months

[hathorcat]

Yes I had heard of the cases...I had hoped it was a temporary feature...guess not. However, it certainly puts you off selling outside your own country!

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Yes I had heard of the cases...I had hoped it was a temporary feature...guess not. However, it certainly puts you off selling outside your own country!

I'm sure the changes have something to do with how Ebay reports to the tax-paying government bodies in each country, i.e., how they report to the IRS.  By putting more restraints on international sales, they can assure that import and taxes are paid more appropriately to the seller's country of origin.

But at least they clarified it in a policy! 

[hathorcat]

Yes I had heard of the cases...I had hoped it was a temporary feature...guess not. However, it certainly puts you off selling outside your own country!

I'm sure the changes have something to do with how Ebay reports to the tax-paying government bodies in each country, i.e., how they report to the IRS.  By putting more restraints on international sales, they can assure that import and taxes are paid more appropriately to the seller's country of origin.

But at least they clarified it in a policy! 

Now that starts to make sense! With so many retailers experiencing restrictions for operating out with certain international/continental boundaries...I wouldn't be surprised if ebay as one of the few who seemed to openly encourage international transactions were being forced to or simply reconsidering how easy they make buying and selling items from different countries.

[ponylady]

I remember this being discussed on ebays discussion board awhile back.  I want to say they announced it in January but they might just be starting to roll it out now.  I could be wrong, my memory doesn't serve me right sometimes. 
 
Anyhooo  I think some of it has to do with maybe what LBS mentioned but I think it's mostly because some eBay policies differ between countries - in particular, eBay Buyer  Protection policies.
So I am going to say it's probably just confirming that you're aware of the policy differences between eBay  sites and countries.

[babystarz]

Yep I got that page recently too. It isn't really a change as far as how they were operating with U.S. sellers anyway, as far as I can tell.  And yes the tax idea makes sense too. I don't know about other countries, but here in the U.S. the online tax landscape is changing very quickly because many states are deciding to apply their state sales taxes to online transactions. If eBay didn't make sure the tax laws were followed, they could end up in a big mess for facilitating untaxed sales. Also I'm sure that they've run into instances where they had to pay for the Buyer Protection refund for items, and this will prevent that.

[Ringlets]

Yep I got that message as well. Thankfully being here I was already aware of the situation, but it is still irritating since I buy and sell a lot internationally *sigh*