I wonder how many who bought your items to split up and re-sell bought them on private accounts ?  Which is also mis-representation, just as criminal and as said above by @cobwebcottage  easily detectable by ebay's A.I

A genuine private seller might occasionally buy one or two of your listings of multiple figures to get hold of one that they're missing, selling-on the others they don't need.  But if they're doing this on a regular basis and re-selling all the figures at a profit, the pattern would be enough easy to spot.  

Yes very easy to spot and no not the case. Just purely buying to sell on. Are you by any chance a private seller? 😂

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@maarsy wrote:

well yes , i have 1620 items on my business and 30 on my private . while on the other hand like others say i have seen myself private accounts i am in competition with have 800 - 1000 items should not be classes as private anymore 

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Whilst someone with that number of items listed is more likely to be a Business Seller than a Private Seller, the number of items listed/sold should not be used on its own to determine whether someone is or isn't a Private Seller as that would not comply with Consumer Legislation.  The same goes for total sales value.

However. I do think there should be a threshold above which you are automatically upgraded to a higher fee structure as is now the case in Australia.  There if your total sales for the last 12 months are greater than AU $25,000 then you are automatically upgraded from 'Free selling' to the 'Pro Starter Plan' and transaction fees (Final Value Fees) are charged instead of the Buyer Protection Fee being applied.  Note being on a 'Pro Plan' doesn't make you a Business Seller so in that regard the name is a little misleading.  The 'Pro Plans' are available to everyone and registering as a Business Seller, if you are actually trading, is still a separate requirement.

Having the same fee structure for both  Private and Business Sellers, like they have in Australia, wouldn't necessarily resolve the problem of businesses trading on a private account but it should help to reduce the number doing so and definitely create a more level playing field, especially if eBay were to also remove the listing fees as they have done in Australia.

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@sml192 wrote:

 

However. I do think there should be a threshold above which you are automatically upgraded to a higher fee structure as is now the case in Australia.  There if your total sales for the last 12 months are greater than AU $25,000 then you are automatically upgraded from 'Free selling' to the 'Pro Starter Plan' and transaction fees (Final Value Fees) are charged instead of the Buyer Protection Fee being applied.  Note being on a 'Pro Plan' doesn't make you a Business Seller so in that regard the name is a little misleading.  The 'Pro Plans' are available to everyone and registering as a Business Seller, if you are actually trading, is still a separate requirement.

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I don't believe eBay Australia has distinct private and business accounts due to there being no requirement in Australian consumer law for traders/businesses to clearly identify themselves as such.

eBay Germany does as their consumer laws stem from the same EU directives that many of our own do. If a German private seller hits the German VAT threshold of €22,000 (~£19,000) German VAT law requires eBay Germany to "upgrade" the user's selling account to a business account regardless whether the seller is actually a business or not. eBay Germany also has obligations under that act to ensure anyone who should be buying or selling via a business account does so as per this policy page (you'll need to use your browser's translate function).

Annoyingly the above shows that eBay can police the type of account a user should be using but only chooses to do so when an organisation with some teeth forces them to.

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@4_bathrooms wrote:

I don't believe eBay Australia has distinct private and business accounts due to there being no requirement in Australian consumer law for traders/businesses to clearly identify themselves as such.

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True, there doesn't seem to be as much of a distinction but there is still some separation.  There is no reference to 'Private Sellers' at all but business sellers are still required to provide their business details to eBay and they are then shown as being 'Registered as a Business seller' in their listings.  To what extent that is policed by eBay, given that Australian consumer law doesn't require businesses to clearly identify themselves asuch or to offer 'Change of mind' returns, is another matter.