Why is Ebay allowing listings of Flour for baking at exorbitant prices. It's profiteering.

[daveat1]

So the world is cowerering in the face of Covid19, so what do some wonderful people do?

They start stripping the stores of food for there own selfish reasons.

To make it worse some of them are trying to make a "quick buck" with a sideline in profiteering.

Selling flour (this is the only one I noticed), that was no doubt previously on sale in a food shop at exhorbitant prices.

Almost as bad are the people bidding on them, this just encourages these morons.

I thought Ebay had an ethical policy about profiteering.

Why haven't they taken these listings down?

Update 4/4/20

Well I eventually found the "Report" link (it's under the listing on the right) and did some reporting. Some of the more unusual brands I left alone because I don't know how much they should cost. I concentrated on brands that must have come off of Supermarket shelves. Also some bulk items (16kg). I checked prices at the suppliers e.g. Dove.

Some were inflated by as much as 1000% e.g. £1.70 to £17.00 This was a couple of days ago.

I only reported auction items that had a starting bid that was much too high e.g. 400%

It's impossible to tell if high bids on these items are from "auction breakers" or idiots.

I checked today and all of those I reported have been delisted.

So if like me you feel outraged by the greed of some people taking advantage of the needs of others during a time of crisiss get reporting. Check that it really is a rip off though and I'd suggest not to be overly zealous.

Price increases of more than about 10% of the expected price i.e. what Super Markets charge is illegal in the UK.

If you feel especially agrieved you can report transgressors to:

National Consumer Commission instead, on 0800 014 880
Do not ring the Police directly.

Information Source

https://www.businessinsider.co.za/how-to-report-price-gouging-and-profiteering-during-the-coronaviru...

Ah I feel so much better now 🙂

[plpmr]

"Why haven't they taken these listings down?"

How long ago is it since you reported the listing to eBay?

[daveat1]

It's less than 24 hours since I tried. None of the listing I looked at had a "Report" option. When I used the Green Covid19 link The only items offered were those I had already bought!
Another comment about poor old Ebay having to deal with millions of such listings doesn't ring true either. Ebay doesn't have a problem collecting money from all those millions. There maybe millions worldwide but it only took me a few minutes of browsing on Ebay UK to spot many obvious attempts at profiteering. For example flour as mentioned, respirators at more than twice the retail price.
By allowing these people to make these listings it encourages the unscrupleless to raid stores in order to exploit people. If they didn't have an outlet to sell items, they would be less likely acquire them.
If there was a way of reporting these items, I would be happy to help.
Some of the other comments I've received make me wonder how many of them work for Ebay.
Those and the copyright lawyers worrying about me asking the same question as someone else. That someone probably had the same excuses as me.
But at least I got some response from members, just a shame Ebay doesn't seem do anything about it.
I've used Ebay for many years and I've noticed as time goes by that it its harder and harder to actually contact a real person on Ebay. You are channelled into Q&As which more often than not don't provide a solution or the righteous defenders of Ebay.
Since Ebay clearly wants to do auto everything, if they are serious about reporting profiteering how about a nice big visible "Click on Me" button on every listing rather than one that only half works and is hidden away.
No doubt I got this wrong too, do tell 🙂
It's also got very expensive but that's another issue.