E bikes and Baby toys for co.uk can only be sold by Business Sellers

[fatbobfan]

Selling e-bikes and baby toys on eBay.co.uk

We're getting in touch to let you know that we're updating our policy for selling e-bikes and their batteries, chargers, conversion kits, and baby toys on ebay.co.uk. To ensure that these products adhere to UK safety standards when sold on our marketplace, from 31 October 2024 only eligible business sellers will be able to list them for sale in the UK. The impacted products are as follows:

• •	E-bikes: This includes e-bikes and their batteries, chargers, and conversion kits. These products can only be sold by business sellers. Please note that used e-bike batteries will no longer be able to be sold on ebay.co.uk

• •	Baby toys: Items for the use of children under 36 months can only be sold by business sellers registered in the UK

In addition to the criteria above, you’ll need:

• •	An established history of active selling for at least 90 days, with 100 or more transactions and £1,000 or more in sales in the last 12 months

• •	A track record of delivering positive buying experiences, including an account that’s Above Standard or Top Rated

• •	To be compliant with all applicable laws, regulations, and eBay policies

• •	To have registered for eBay managed payments and verified your identity

• •	To provide great customer service, like delivering items on time

Anyone recall this type of thing happening in the past? 

[myriad*seller]

Hence why toy sellers are being told to register as businesses now

[fatbobfan]

Not all toy sellers are businesses,

Quite common for baby toys to be sold on after theyve been outgrown/not used/unwanted gifts.

Received the email on my registered business account

Was wondering if anyone can recall something similar

[theprettybits]

On Amazon private sellers can only sell used media (books, DVDs), it's always been that way.

I hope eBay does that for all categories as the businesses trading on private accounts are growing in numbers now that selling is free. 

They need to fix the reposting system and really step up on cleaning the site or they might end up with free sales and no income aside from interest from keeping private sellers' money for a few days in the new money balance feature.

[4_bathrooms]

Interesting. At first I thought this was GPSR related due to Northern Ireland but the restrictions are too specific for that. This sounds more like something from the Office for Product Safety and Standards - I know there have been several e-bike battery fires reported in the news recently. 

[4_bathrooms]

It seems it is down to the OPSS and their Product Regulation and Metrology Bill:

"There is an urgent need to legislate to respond to emerging threats to consumer safety, for example, to address issues such as incidents from ingesting button batteries, and e-bike fires where there was a 78 per cent increase in e-bike fires in 2023 compared to 2022 in London according to the London Fire Brigade"

[kempseykate]

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@theprettybits wrote:

On Amazon private sellers can only sell used media (books, DVDs), it's always been that way.

I hope eBay does that for all categories as the businesses trading on private accounts are growing in numbers now that selling is free. 

They need to fix the reposting system and really step up on cleaning the site or they might end up with free sales and no income aside from interest from keeping private sellers' money for a few days in the new money balance feature.

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Do you mean make all categories business seller only? Or make all categories except media business sellers only?
Surely, ebay just need to step up to the problem of unregistered business sellers.
I think banning private sellers in all categories would make ebay a very dull place. 

[pg_kicks]

It would be very much a sledgehammer to crack a walnut situation then though, I dont mind private accounts selling items, like you say if eBay had a working reporting system and took the reports seriously then a lot of the complaints would go away. It will be interesting to see what happens to accounts who list these incorrectly.

[4_bathrooms]

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@pg_kicks wrote:

It will be interesting to see what happens to accounts who list these incorrectly.

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According to the announcement private sellers will not be able to list these items at all.

[pg_kicks]

They'll just not be given the categories, but I mean if they listed in bikes and not ebikes type of thing.

[4_bathrooms]

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@pg_kicks wrote:

They'll just not be given the categories, but I mean if they listed in bikes and not ebikes type of thing.

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I can only imagine that would be an easy INAD win for a buyer. Anyway, this is being policed by the OPSS who have the power to remove listings without eBay's involvement. A seller receiving more than one OPSS takedown is likely headed for a permanent selling restriction.

[4_bathrooms]

Some more information here (PDF file):

"All consumer products must comply with safety requirements before they can be placed on
the market. Despite this, the sale of unsafe products via online marketplaces is highlighted
by consumer groups and trade associations as a problem. Unsafe products sold on online
platforms include those that could cause significant harm or fatalities. Without modernising
the product safety framework to clarify responsibilities for online marketplaces, the sale of
non-compliant products via these platforms may continue. Recent examples of concern
include:  

• The sale of inherently dangerous baby self-feeding products, that the Office for
  Product Safety & Standards (OPSS) investigations indicated were being sold
  exclusively on online platforms. They required Urgent Safety Alerts2 and had varying
  levels of success at the speed that listings were removed. One online marketplace did
  not respond to requests.
• Serious e-bike fires; OPSS3 is aware of three fatalities in 2022 and 11 in 2023 involving
  batteries related to light electric vehicles such as e-bikes and e-scooters. In 2023
  alone, the London Fire Brigade attended over 160 fires caused by e-bikes and e
  scooters, resulting in over 50 injuries and 3 deaths4.
• More than 1,000 carbon monoxide alarms that were listed on eBay, Amazon,
  AliExpress and Wish failed to detect the gas in Which? product testing5.
• The British Toy and Hobby Association (BTHA) tested over 500 toys purchased from
  Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, and Wish from 2018 to 2022, and identified 86% to be
  non-compliant6 and 48% to have serious safety issues.
• Illegal angle grinder chainsaw disc attachments7, with a risk of serious injury, that
  investigations revealed were being sold exclusively online."

This Bill is currently at the 2nd reading stage so hasn't received Royal Assent yet. It looks like it might result in "GPSR-lite" for those selling to Great Britain when it does.

[theprettybits]

No, I have nothing against real private sellers, the ones selling their unwanted stuff. Just that stuff can't be new, it's not new, even if it was never used and opened.

Amazon is obviously a completely different platform and the real private sellers are the charm of this platform, without them, eBay will not be eBay.

I just want to see eBay taking some action! At the moment we can't even report the private business sellers.

[4_bathrooms]

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@theprettybits wrote:

No, I have nothing against real private sellers, the ones selling their unwanted stuff. Just that stuff can't be new, it's not new, even if it was never used and opened.

---

I agree. However, the problem is eBay's item conditions. A private seller can't possibly be selling anything that is "brand new" as even if the item has never been used, worn etc. it is still second-hand by definition. Taking the "Clothes, Shoes & Accessories" category as an example there is no item condition for an unworn item that doesn't get translated as "brand new". When a private seller buys something from a shop or an online retailer it is brand new when they receive it but will be second-hand (or pre-owned for those who prefer marketing terms) when they choose to sell it.

[kempseykate]

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@4_bathrooms wrote:

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@theprettybits wrote:

No, I have nothing against real private sellers, the ones selling their unwanted stuff. Just that stuff can't be new, it's not new, even if it was never used and opened.

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I agree. However, the problem is eBay's item conditions. A private seller can't possibly be selling anything that is "brand new" as even if the item has never been used, worn etc. it is still second-hand by definition. Taking the "Clothes, Shoes & Accessories" category as an example there is no item condition for an unworn item that doesn't get translated as "brand new". When a private seller buys something from a shop or an online retailer it is brand new when they receive it but will be second-hand (or pre-owned for those who prefer marketing terms) when they choose to sell it.

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I agree that much of the fault is with ebay condition options.

If I (private seller) buy a top from M&S but decide I don't want it, and can't be bothered to go back to change it (I only do town about once a year, if that!), then according to some, if I want to list it, I should list it as used.
BUT if a business seller buys a lot of M&S tagged/label cut items, THEY can list it as brand new - even though that item may have been tried on ten times, sat on the floor for a while, been in 2 markdown sales, been sent off to a wholeseller, handled there, unpacked by the business seller sat in their store room getting a bit more dusty!

IMO ebay needs an 'unworn' option which will fit the first scenario, and possibly a 'seconds/returns' option, which would fit the second.

I must say though, I think the e-bike move is a very good idea.

[rainbowtrax]

Well, this is going to cause a stir. The first thing that springs to mind is what actual ebay categories are going to be blocked for private sellers. Will it just be Baby > Toys & Activities >... categories or will it also include Toys & Games > ... categories where that age range is selected in item specifics? If it doesn't include the latter then that will be an obvious loophole. I just had a quick look and there are currently 54,000+ listings from private sellers in the Toys & Games category when you use the two filters, 12 Months & Under and 1-2 Years. That, of course, doesn't include the no doubt many more that just haven't got that item specific filled in.

dave@ebay do you know the finer details of this announcement?

[4_bathrooms]

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@rainbowtrax wrote:

Well, this is going to cause a stir. 

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I suspect this is only the start. As mentioned, it is currently a Bill being discussed in the House of Lords. It won't become an Act (i.e. law) until it receives Royal Assent which is quite a while away. It is interesting the OPSS has decided to preemptively force the online markertplaces' hands now regarding the sale of the mentioned products rather than wait until the "Product Regulation and Metrology Act" becomes enshrined in law.

From the impact assessment:

"The product safety regulatory framework in the UK covers the majority of consumer products and a significant number of industrial products. The overwhelming majority of this legislation is assimilated law, transposed into UK law during membership of the EU and then retained during the EU exit process. The legislation used to be regularly updated using secondary legislation under the European Communities Act 1972. However, since those powers were revoked, there are very limited powers to make changes to the legislative framework that now applies in Great Britain (GB), whether that is to keep pace with EU law or developments, or to address the issues outlined below. This means the UK could start falling behind the EU and internationally in areas such as the use of AI, technology in machinery, and the regulation of online marketplaces. "

The general tone suggests some sort of GPSR-lite regulation is coming to Great Britain.

[ett1954]

Interestingly I am starting to see some 'new' and 'new with tags' soft toy listings from private sellers appearing in Collectables categories.

[kempseykate]

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@ett1954 wrote:

Interestingly I am starting to see some 'new' and 'new with tags' soft toy listings from private sellers appearing in Collectables categories.

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To be fair, we have listed stuff like this in the past, and have put it in 'collectables' . It depended which was the most suitable category.

OH and I were discussing this this morning. OH still has lots of Dr Who stuff. Say there was such a thing as a Dr Who teething ring,  and he decided he no longer wanted it. I would have listed that under Dr Who collectables, because I would assume that the buyer would be someone looking to add it to a Who collection, rather than a mum looking for a teething ring for her baby. But if I listed it there under the new rules, it presumably would be seen as me trying to get round the block.

[ett1954]

I understand the collectables attraction for the appropriate 'toys' such as action figures, Dr. Who, Star Trek, etc., but these are soft toys you can go out and buy on the high street today.