14-02-2025 1:04 PM
Upon a knowingly restricted item being submitted for listing, eBay has all the information it needs (as outlined below) to prevent a restricted item from being listed - so why do they choose not do so?
Please let me explain. Every listing on eBay has fields of information that are compulsory. Two of the most important fields are:
1) The Image field. Every listing has to have an image of the item being sold.
2) The Title field. Every listing has to have a title which contains an accurate description of the item being sold.
These two fields are particularly important as they pinpoint items that are being searched for and they generally do a very good job. Business Sellers in the majority of cases will go the extra mile and enter the EAN / ISBN number which lists the exact item.
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At this moment in time and for a long while now eBay has broken its own restricted adult items policy. Below are just two of the many thousands of titles that contravene eBay’s restricted adult items policy:
Destricted*
Salon Kitty
Both of those items are rated 18 by the BBFC and both were removed from my listings, along with numerous others, because eBay stated those items broke the restricted adult items policy. I invite the reader to do a search for those two particular items right now and I guarantee they will see numerous copies of those restricted items for sale.
I’m not going to go down the route of why eBay can’t / don’t / won’t remove these items once listed given they have all the information they require (and an AI search bot I'm reliably informed). That avenue of enquiry has proven fruitless and has elicited all sorts of ludicrous excuses from eBay.
Instead what I want to know is simply this:
Upon a knowingly restricted item being submitted for listing, eBay has all the information it needs (as outlined above) to prevent a restricted item from being listed - so why do they choose not do so?
Genuine question. If anyone from eBay itself can answer this question I’d be highly delighted because despite speaking to several people who work in the relevant department that deals with this policy, I have yet to have an answer.
*I’m taken with the irony of a DVD entitled ‘Destricted’ being restricted by eBay.
15-02-2025 2:10 PM
Update:
Having now spoken to two agents who work in eBay's Restricted and Prohibited Department it appears that, whilst eBay can prevent restricted and prohibited items from being listed, they choose not to do so. Prevention is better than cure. Both agents were well versed in eBay's item removal policy and how it works but neither could answer why eBay couldn't simply refuse to list known prohibited items in the first place. Unfortunately, whilst being polite, neither agent covered themselves in glory once they'd painted themselves into a corner, the gist being: "This matter is now resolved. Is there anything else I can help you with?" This matter isn't resolved though is it? "This matter is resolved. If there's nothing else I can help you with I have other callers to attend to." *click*
I've recorded all of the calls with eBay as an aide-memoire so creating transcripts shouldn't be an issue. The next step FWIW would be informing my local M.P. and emailing a local news station reporter in relation to eBay knowingly trading in items that it's own policy forbids. Not much else I can do if I'm honest. C'est la vie.