eBay Australia to only permit payment via PayPal
Saturday, April 12, 2008
On the back of new restrictions being imposed on eBay users in the United Kingdom requiring that sellers offer PayPal payments for all sales, eBay Australia is mandating that only PayPal payments will be acceptable as of June 17. PayPal is a wholly-owned subsidiary of eBay, and charges a 30¢ transaction fee, plus a commission between 1.1% for high volume traders, and 2.4% for low value or low volume traders. These higher costs will be passed onto buyers.
Cash payment on pick up will be the only other payment option, and it may only be offered in conjunction with PayPal.
eBay has brought in this restriction under the guise of improving customer protection, bolstering its "Paypal Buyer Protection" insurance programme to allow claims up to A$20,000 instead of the previous maximum of $3,000, however as of June 17 many of the items which would exceed $3,000 are no longer covered by the programme, such as services, vehicles, real estate and businesses.
eBay Trust and Safety director Alastair MacGibbon said this change was not in response to the once-off fund established in March to refund eBay buyers who lost their non-existent holiday accommodation packages from the Melbourne eBay seller Robert Kobis. Mr MacGibbon said "It is part of a much larger initiative".
In addition to these measures, Paypal will be withholding funds from some sellers for 21 days
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has held discussion with eBay, but declined to comment. The Australian Consumers Association spokesman Christopher Zinn said the unique use of PayPal could give rise to competition issues, however if the costs charged stayed as they were, they had no further concerns.
Related news
edit- "eBay to make PayPal mandatory for UK sellers" — Wikinews, March 25, 2008
Sources
edit- "What's changing-Selling changes" — eBay, retrieved April 12, 2008
- "Exclusions to Changes on eBay.com.au" — eBay, retrieved April 12, 2008
- Kylie Reghenzani. "eBay boosts security" — Cairns Post, April 11, 2008
- "eBay forces vendors to use its in-house bank" — Inside Retailing, April 11, 2008
- "eBay changes raise ACA concerns" — West Australian, April 11, 2008
- "eBay to accept cash and PayPal only" — The Sydney Morning Herald, April 10, 2008
- Sylvie Barak. "Ebay forces Aussie buyers to use Paypal" — the Inquirer, April 10, 2008
- "eBay holiday compensation" — Herald Sun, March 11, 2008