eBay buying in the sales to resell abroad. Allowed?

springer211

Hello
my sister wants to start a little business on eBay, buying some stuff in the sales that she thinks would sell well abroad.
She is planning to post on eBay Spain to sell to the Brits there. She lived there for a little while so she understands the language ok.
She will be registering as a business in the UK.

I'm worried that she could get into trouble if the companies found out that is buying their stuff (same as a private individual) to resell abroad.
It won't be branded/designer stuff, just normal everyday brands that don't have issues with copyrights/trademarks/fakes etc, but still....
Is it allowed?

What do people think?

amcluesent

Could work, selling to expats is well established, shipping over Earl Grey and the like.

With branded clothes etc. I think you'd run the risk of Spanish distributors or other authorised importers complaining to Ebay.

cyberbob

As long as she registers as a business with ebay and the HMRC there should be no problem. I would do lots of research first there are a lot of sellers on ebay catering for the expat market specialising in selling UK goods for those that miss them,

There is quite a good markey in Marmite, Hienz baked beans and PG tips.

Most companies you will have no problem reselling goods it's the designer brands that sometimes get funny when people try to sell on ebay.

cyberbob

amcluesent wrote: »

With branded clothes etc. I think you'd run the risk of Spanish distributors or other authorised importers complaining to Ebay.

Unless they're selling high end designer goods or selling in huge quantities I very much doubt it.

Pembroke

Has she done any market research as to whether Brits in Spain use the Spanish version of Ebay and not the .co.uk or the .com site ? I've had a quick look at the Ebay.es site and it's very different from our UK pages.

Also she may need to go through the help pages on the Spanish site to find out what the business requirements are in Spain as although she's based in this country (?) their business requirements might be different. What I mean is if she's only going to sell on Ebay Spain then she may have to comply with Spanish law, whereas if she sells on the UK site and also lists on the Spanish one then registering as a business in this country that also happens to sell in Spain is okay.

Crowqueen

Laws relating to consumer rights that your Spanish or ex-pat Brits should be fairly similar as the EU has made efforts to harmonise consumer regulation throughout the Community. Check you know what you need to offer in terms of terms and conditions. The Direct Selling Regulations are the UK implementations of EU directives on consumer rights. Check what rights apply to international customers as although they may not differ from the rights your UK customers have when buying, particularly on fixed price listings, there may be some nuances applying to other EU purchases and purchasers.

Tax and business representation laws are still localised; however, if your business is based in the UK selling abroad to ex-pats there is no need to register to pay Spanish tax or whatever. You are basically exporting goods to Spain through eBay ES (is it not trading under the Mercado Libre marque still?) and as long as you conform to British laws then there will be no problems.

hermum

Don't forget that a lot of Brits living in Spain have either returned back to the UK or are living very frugally at the moment, in some parts it's last Brit out switch off the light.
Probably best to not invest too much money if pinning all her hopes on Spain.

soolin

I don't think this needs to be over complicated really, huge amounts of my items go overseas and i do very often buy my stock with a view to these foreign buyers. I am registered for tax in the UK and all my items go standard RM airmail, I do nothing more complicated than that.

Although i have to say that Spain is not a large market for me, my best market is probably Australia and the Balkan countries.

amcluesent

>Brits living in Spain have either returned back to the UK or are living very frugally at the moment<

https://www.lidl.es - ¡Mas barato!

springer211

Thank you all for your advice!

Will pass it on.