topic Re: eBays AI appears to removing items incorrectly in Technical Issues

eBays AI appears to removing items incorrectly

ne.mas — Fri, 08 May 2026 09:25:57 GMT

Has anyone else had items removed due to eBays AI flagging up Policy Violations incorrectly?

I am being targeted and having items which I have been selling for over 30 years as the AI is now classing them as against their POLICE and Emergency response item policy.

The items have absolutely nothing to do in anyway with the Police or EMERGENCY Services.

The AI needs to be fine tuned.

Re: eBays AI appears to removing items incorrectly

jonatjonatjonat — Fri, 08 May 2026 11:01:22 GMT

Or it could be the policy has changed in the last 30 years.

Note the policy is here

The full line is 'Law enforcement and other government-issued uniforms, badges, or accessories, such as hats, jackets, or shirts,or replicas of these items'

Presumably if its military - they would be government issued?

ebay has a lot of policies though.

Re: eBays AI appears to removing items incorrectly

ne.mas — Fri, 08 May 2026 14:27:34 GMT

The items being flagged are as policy violation. They are actually Sea Cadet Corps insignia and as such are not police, emergency or government items.

Re: eBays AI appears to removing items incorrectly

jonatjonatjonat — Fri, 08 May 2026 15:09:42 GMT

Perhaps Sea Cadets have made a complaint? Don't know to be honest.

Do know though if you are buying those new items with the express point to sell them - there's other policies that would be broken.

Re: eBays AI appears to removing items incorrectly

rare_treat — Fri, 08 May 2026 15:53:50 GMT

You are not alone.

eBay’s AI system for policy breaches is horrendous. So many listings are being flagged incorrectly, and there is nothing you can do about it. Equally, there are huge amounts of listings that breach policies, even break the law, but not only does the AI not pick them up, reporting them results in it saying there is nothing wrong.

Why some and not others? - nobody seems to know.

And that’s when the policy breach is clear.

Given that "Police-related items policy" simply specifies "military items" cannot be listed, that is hugely vague and all-encompassing in itself. So at any time you could find that your Royal Navy / other military items are all removed because of this policy.

It's anyone's guess exactly how and when eBay would enforce this.

You just have to put up with it / try and work with it, if you want to sell on here.

Re: eBays AI appears to removing items incorrectly

fribblecollectables — Sat, 09 May 2026 14:34:48 GMT

Now you are on eBay’s radar, it's worth double checking you have the correct type of selling account just in case:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sellercentre/selling/start-selling/create-ebay-business-account

Re: eBays AI appears to removing items incorrectly

bigcomicbookguy — Tue, 26 May 2026 14:28:52 GMT

You're not the only one. I had a competitor in late 2025 tag all my listings as counterfeit or illegal in order to gain advantage. This went on for 3 months and it wasnt until March this year that ebay stepped in a banned the competitor. But for my account, the damage was sadly already done. I cant list anything now without the ebay AI tagging everything I sell as either fake, or prnographic. Even today I had 20 listings removed (I well weiss & schwarz cards), and when i rang ebay, they openly admitted that it was an error and my listing will most likely be restored, but sadly i still need to wait out the 10 day ban that was placed on me incorrectly. It totally sucks, and it seems ebay is refusing to address the issue.

Re: eBays AI appears to removing items incorrectly

tntdisco — Wed, 27 May 2026 08:05:57 GMT

I had disco strobe lighting accessories that had been listed for over 5 years pulled as violating the 'Police and Emergency Response equipment' policy. I hope our police service are not that low on funds that they are having to fit disco lighting to their vehicles.

Re: eBays AI appears to removing items incorrectly

bigcomicbookguy — Wed, 27 May 2026 09:31:04 GMT

Tying times. How about this ebay.... heres some ai garbage for you to vet - its about as ridiculous as the ebay protocols

Re: eBays AI appears to removing items incorrectly

jonatjonatjonat — Wed, 27 May 2026 11:31:27 GMT

You're lucky ebay don't police other policies, like Business Seller policies for example.

Re: eBays AI appears to removing items incorrectly

tntdisco — Wed, 27 May 2026 12:00:37 GMT

Oh they do don't worry.

Their AI pulls lots of listings, some very annoying like not being able to sell anything by one manufacture just because some time in the distant past Amazon pulled one of that manufactures products so now their name is on eBay AIs black list. It even pulls listings for products by other manufactures because they 'look similar'.

It is like AI banning the sale of anything that looks like a car because Ford once recalled one of their models.

At the moment I could legally buy something of Amazon and immediately list it on eBay and have the listing pulled as violating the 'selling recalled goods' policy.

Re: eBays AI appears to removing items incorrectly

jonatjonatjonat — Wed, 27 May 2026 12:07:35 GMT

the absolute gall to talk about legalities! apparently buyers buying from you don't have the right to know your business details?

Re: eBays AI appears to removing items incorrectly

fribblecollectables — Wed, 27 May 2026 12:14:54 GMT

I think the point jonatjonatjonat is making is that AI somehow misses sellers acquiring stock specifically to resell, using the wrong account type, and clocking up thousands of sales.

Still, perhaps the Business Seller policy is one of those optional policies we can pick and choose.

Re: eBays AI appears to removing items incorrectly

tntdisco — Wed, 27 May 2026 13:05:45 GMT

I am not going to get into the 'private' vs 'business' account politics that business sellers gripe about on these forums. As long as it is legal by both the government and eBay to trade without registering a company then that is ok by me.

No one forced most business sellers to be so - they chose to be - and I respect that choice. Pity they can't respect hobbyist sellers such as myself in choosing private accounts. Should ever get the time and energy to clock up thousands of sales a month I would no doubt then reconsider that decision, especially as it would at that point most likely no longer be a hobby. Some weeks I made no sales at all.

eBay selling is, for me, a hobby along side my fulltime job and as long eBay are happy and my taxes are paid to HMRC then I couldn't care less about some business seller moaning about private sellers.

As for the statement 'buyers buying from you don't have the right to know your business details' - what does that even mean? eBay will happily give my personal address and contact details to any one who purchases something from me. It is even printed on all my Royal Mail postage labels as the senders address.

This is far more transparent than a lot of eBay business resellers who hide behind PO Boxes.

Do business sellers complain at car boot sales for sellers who paid for stock as I am sure those regular car boot sellers don't have that much 'personal' stuff to sell off?

That is all I will say on this topic so the business sellers can't hijack another thread with this. Such business sellers do come over as running scared of private sellers. Which is stupid as eBay was originally founded as a platform for online hobbyists, garage sales and car boot sales.

Re: eBays AI appears to removing items incorrectly

jonatjonatjonat — Wed, 27 May 2026 13:20:32 GMT

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2008/1277/contents

It very much is not legal. And someone listing 950 items is way beyond hobby selling frankly.

Not that you'll care a jot of course.

Re: eBays AI appears to removing items incorrectly

fribblecollectables — Wed, 27 May 2026 13:49:24 GMT

@tntdisco wrote:

"No one forced most business sellers to be so - they chose to be - and I respect that choice. "

When I started on here, I did not see it as a choice.

GOV.UK says: “You’re probably trading if you sell goods that you have bought intending to sell for a profit.”

That describes exactly what I am doing. The word “probably” is there because status depends on the overall facts, but buying stock to resell is clearly one of the main indicators of trading.

I also read eBay’s own Business Seller Policy, which says: “An eBay seller must register as a business if, for example, they sell items they have bought to resell, they make items in order to sell them…”

I also want to wake up each morning and find my eBay account still running normally. I do not want to find restrictions because eBay has decided I should have been registered as a business seller all along.

Those restrictions could be minor, such as being told to change the account type before listing more items. But they could also be much more disruptive, such as listings being ended, selling activity being restricted, or having to rebuild listings under the correct account status.

I do not know exactly what eBay would do, and I would rather not find out the hard way.

That is why I registered correctly.