Why it's against policy to post links to official hardware specs?
Summary: mycognitive is confused about why their listing on eBay was blocked for containing a link to a manufacturer's website with hardware specs, as they believe it doesn't violate the policy on buying or selling outside of eBay. jonatjonatjonat explains that the issue relates to eBay's Links Policy, which generally restricts links to non-eBay pages. *vyolla* agrees, noting that links to third-party sites pose security risks and eBay's policies generally prohibit them to protect users, with few exceptions.
In one of the listings I've posted a link in the description to official amd.com website, but listing got blocked immediately due to Policy violation.
Example link:
I'm not selling it outside, link doesn't contain any personal details, it's just simple hardware specs link, so why this is against the policy?
I'm trying to understand it since 2 weeks and I still don't understand why it's not allowed. I've tried to contact eBay several times, they said all links are not allowed.
Policy violation message which is shown:
This listing violates our Offering to Buy or Sell Outside of eBay Policy. It's hidden until you can fix it.
So I'm reading Offering to buy or sell outside of eBay policy and this is not violate the following rules:
link to additional identical or related items for sale outside of eBay => DOESN'T APPLY
Offer catalogues or other items that are used to order items directly outside of eBay => DOESN'T APPLY
Share or request direct contact information prior to completing a sale. This includes: External website addresses (URLs) => DOESNT APPLY, because I'm not sharing direct contact information.
So which exactly rule is violated when posting the official links to hardware specs of the official hardware manufacturer?
eastern-lights
·2 weeks agoIf it was me, I would say something like, "For full specification please see official Amd website and find the support area for amd-ryzen-threadripper-pro-7000-wx-series"
*vyolla*
·2 weeks agoWith respect, it should be pretty obvious why links to third party sites aren't allowed. It's a potential security issue. Somebody could place a dodgy link in their listing spoofed to look like a genuine one. That's why eBay don't permit links to third party websites.
To protect our members, listings or products can’t contain links that direct customers to a site other than eBay, even if the link is not clickable.
While there are some exceptions, listings or item descriptions can't contain links that direct customers to any other site.
Taken from this eBay guidance page:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/listing-policies/links-policy?id=4248&st=3&pos=7&query=Links%20...
jonatjonatjonat
·2 weeks agoAnd even on the link you did provide - you could argue there's a shop on the page you link to - its an ecommerce site even if that particular page is a list of specs.
Those specs could just be copied and pasted into your own description on ebay.
jonatjonatjonat
·2 weeks agoThey've quoted the wrong rule.
It's actually just the Links Policy that you are falling foul of.
And to be fair - I think its pretty much any link these days bar a link to another ebay page.