eBay effectively forces new sellers to have PayPal
Submitted
by
Ezza
Ezza writes "eBay Australia is forcing new sellers "to offer at least one preferred safe payment method of either PayPal or merchant credit card facilities". Given that it is almost impossible (not to mention expensive) for a private individual to have merchant facilities, this means that most new sellers will be forced to have a PayPal account to sell on ebay. See the announcement here — http://www2.ebay.com/aw/au/200701.shtml#2007-01-23 102815
Not only that, but the changes are retrospective — the announcement made on the 23rd Jan will affect sellers who registered after the 17th.
A previous announcement (on the 18th) — while failing to mention the 'safe payment method' change — also banned cross-border trading for sellers who aren't PayPal verified. ie you can't sell on ebay.com if you are registered on ebay.com.au — again mandating the seller have paypal.
I didn't see the word "monopoly" anywhere in the announcements, I guess they forgot.
(Paypal is of course owned by ebay)."
Not only that, but the changes are retrospective — the announcement made on the 23rd Jan will affect sellers who registered after the 17th.
A previous announcement (on the 18th) — while failing to mention the 'safe payment method' change — also banned cross-border trading for sellers who aren't PayPal verified. ie you can't sell on ebay.com if you are registered on ebay.com.au — again mandating the seller have paypal.
I didn't see the word "monopoly" anywhere in the announcements, I guess they forgot.
(Paypal is of course owned by ebay)."