Price Gouging

[nspencer2912]

Last week I listed a small box of Allinson's Yeast Easy Bake Sachets (6 sachets in a box) for 99p plus £1.75 delivery.  I listed it on 5 day auction with no reserve.  If it had received one bid it would have sold for 99p plus £1.75 delivery.  However, by day 3 the bids had gone up to £11.50.  Shortly afterwards, I received an email from ebay saying the listing had been removed because it didn't follow their price gouging policy - 'offering items at a price higher than is considered fair or reasonable is not allowed on ebay.  Listings that don't follow this policy in the future will be ended, and there will be a 3-day restriction placed on your account'.  

Having been with ebay since 2003 and not coming across this before, I would like not to fall foul of any restrictions.  As I hadn't put a reserve price on this item, and the only reason the price was high was because of the bids (which is how an auction works), am I missing something?

[**peaseblossom**]

No you're not missing anything.  It's just that ebay are understandably very sensitive to criticism about allowing sellers to take advantage of the coronavirus situation.  Someone must have seen the high price and reported the listing to ebay.   Both they and ebay did not check that you started at a low price.   It's best to avoid selling anything that is in short supply at the moment due to the virus.