Is it legal for ebay to take commission from seller's postage?

keeshuk

Is it legal for ebay to take a cut of a seller's postage? In September its FVF is going up to 14% and they will be taking that from the TOTAL (item price and postage)? Surely that can't be legal? If a seller charges (eg) £1 (exact cost) to post an item, the seller will have to make up the postage after ebay have taken its cut. ...Sellers putting up postage to make up for ebay's greed will only have it impacted on their feedback, and ultimately, sales.

RFW

keeshuk wrote: »

Is it legal for ebay to take a cut of a seller's postage? In September its FVF is going up to 14% and they will be taking that from the TOTAL (item price and postage)? Surely that can't be legal? If a seller charges (eg) £1 (exact cost) to post an item, the seller will have to make up the postage after ebay have taken its cut. ...Sellers putting up postage to make up for ebay's greed will only have it impacted on their feedback, and ultimately, sales.

Try reporting them to the police if you think they are acting illegally.
In what way could it possibly be illegal?
You do know there are changes to all the fee structure? Some sellers will be considerably better off.

JimmyTheWig

They could charge £100 if they wanted and still be legal.
I doubt they'd get many people using their services, though.

As to whether they do after the change you describe, we'll have to wait and see.

RFW

I'm amazed as to what some people think Ebay is. It isn't a public service, it's a large global corporation.

The litigious USA have had fees on postage for many years and they haven't yet been prosecuted.
Amazon also charge fees on postage and again no prosecution.

Just because you don't like something doesn't make it illegal.

keeshuk

Why should sellers have to give them a cut of the money that is being used to send the item - they are already getting a large fee from the sale (and the insertion fee)??!! ...Small-time sellers will not benefit from this!

custardy

keeshuk wrote: »

Why should sellers have to give them a cut of the money that is being used to send the item - they are already getting a large fee from the sale (and the insertion fee)??!! ...Small-time sellers will not benefit from this!

You dont,sell elsewhere

celestius

The FVF in my category are going down from 12% to 11%.
I don't think any category has 14% FVF?

ballisticbrian

It's a shame though that people didn't rush to support some of the new ones like craftybidder .com - the sellers wait until there's more buyers, and the buyers until more sellers, and they just die off in the process.

custardy

ballisticbrian wrote: »

It's a shame though that people didn't rush to support some of the new ones like craftybidder .com - the sellers wait until there's more buyers, and the buyers until more sellers, and they just die off in the process.

Thing is,as a buyer I can only buy whats there

porto_bello

keeshuk wrote: »

Is it legal for ebay to take a cut of a seller's postage?

It's the same thing as Amazon have been doing since the early days, so I'm sure the practice would have stopped years ago, had it fallen foul of UK ot European law.

ballisticbrian wrote: »

It's a shame though that people didn't rush to support some of the new ones like craftybidder .com - the sellers wait until there's more buyers, and the buyers until more sellers, and they just die off in the process.

Thanks for the tip, I've had a look. I note this is buying and selling art supplies - I would have thought a more lucrative concept would be an auction site that specialises in providing a marketplace for the buying and selling of finished paintings, sculptures etc... is there one?

RFW

porto_bello wrote: »

Thanks for the tip, I've had a look. I note this is buying and selling art supplies - I would have thought a more lucrative concept would be an auction site that specialises in providing a marketplace for the buying and selling of finished paintings, sculptures etc... is there one?

Not my area but I think there are a couple. There are some that probably pre date Ebay. I'd bet they're more expensive. I know the big auction houses charge eye watering fees and get cut from buyers and sellers.