Ebay Forcing Consent to store Credit Card details

blueelise

Hi Forum,

I recently used ebay to place a classified add for selling a motorcycle.

I am happy to pay the required one off fee.
However, to pay the fee I MUST set up a seller account (even though I am unlikely to ever sell anything again) and I MUST give consent to ebay storing my credit card details.
I did not realise this at the time of placing the add.

I am happy for them to store the details for the purpose of completing this one off payment transaction but I am not happy about being forced to consent to them KEEPING my details.
Ebay do not offer any other option.

I contacted their customer service and told them I am happy to make payment but not for them to keep my card details.

The only option they could give me was for me to give consent but then go back in and delete the payment details from my account after the payment has been collected.
I am not comfortable about this, it may remove the link to my account at my end but doesn't mean all record of the details have gone (am I being too anal?)

I just don't believe coercing this consent should be legal? Is it?

Currently my account is disabled because I have refused to give consent to keeping details even though I am happy to pay.

If any one can explain what is right and wrong here, many thanks

user1977

blueelise said:

The only option they could give me was for me to give consent but then go back in and delete the payment details from my account after the payment has been collected.
I am not comfortable about this, it may remove the link to my account at my end but doesn't mean all record of the details have gone (am I being too anal?)

Yes, because even if they had never said they were going to store your card details, how would you know they actually hadn't?

Sandtree

blueelise said:

I just don't believe coercing this consent should be legal? Is it?

Yes, a company can choose what T&Cs it wants such as keeping payment details on file. You are free to select a different site to attempt to sell your motorcycle through... no one is coercing you to use eBay but if you want to then you have to follow their rules.

What is your concern with giving them the card number? Do you also refuse to hand your card over at Hotels etc who typically will also require a number to be stored to pay for incidentals and damages etc.

k3lvc

Obviously your choice on where to advertise/sell your bike but each option has it's own T&C's - unsurprisingly the one with the most power has the most restrictive ones.

All depends on how keen you are to expose your bike to the biggest potential audience 

blueelise

user1977 said:

blueelise said:

The only option they could give me was for me to give consent but then go back in and delete the payment details from my account after the payment has been collected.
I am not comfortable about this, it may remove the link to my account at my end but doesn't mean all record of the details have gone (am I being too anal?)

Yes, because even if they had never said they were going to store your card details, how would you know they actually hadn't?

That is very true, but they are not supposed to without your consent

user1977

blueelise said:

user1977 said:

blueelise said:

The only option they could give me was for me to give consent but then go back in and delete the payment details from my account after the payment has been collected.
I am not comfortable about this, it may remove the link to my account at my end but doesn't mean all record of the details have gone (am I being too anal?)

Yes, because even if they had never said they were going to store your card details, how would you know they actually hadn't?

That is very true, but they are not supposed to without your consent

Yes, and they're also supposed to delete the details if you've told them to. So what's the difference?

blueelise

Sandtree said:

blueelise said:

I just don't believe coercing this consent should be legal? Is it?

Yes, a company can choose what T&Cs it wants such as keeping payment details on file. You are free to select a different site to attempt to sell your motorcycle through... no one is coercing you to use eBay but if you want to then you have to follow their rules.

What is your concern with giving them the card number? Do you also refuse to hand your card over at Hotels etc who typically will also require a number to be stored to pay for incidentals and damages etc.

I don't have an issue with giving consent to storing my card details for the purpose of completing the transaction, it's the consent for indefinitely part I don't like, I would have thought it was an issue for GDPR but judging from the feedback I must be in the wrong.

blueelise

k3lvc said:

Obviously your choice on where to advertise/sell your bike but each option has it's own T&C's - unsurprisingly the one with the most power has the most restrictive ones.

All depends on how keen you are to expose your bike to the biggest potential audience 

True, but don't we have consumer protection laws to guard against overly powerful companies?

Anyway, based on the feedback I will consent and then delete afterwards as advised.

Thank you all for your feed back

JJ_Egan

No they are to give consumers rights , not to give power over companies .

born_again

user1977 said:

blueelise said:

user1977 said:

blueelise said:

The only option they could give me was for me to give consent but then go back in and delete the payment details from my account after the payment has been collected.
I am not comfortable about this, it may remove the link to my account at my end but doesn't mean all record of the details have gone (am I being too anal?)

Yes, because even if they had never said they were going to store your card details, how would you know they actually hadn't?

That is very true, but they are not supposed to without your consent

Yes, and they're also supposed to delete the details if you've told them to. So what's the difference?

Clearly they will not do that till payment is taken. Wonder how many people try that one to avoid the charges?

As OP is selling something, they need a sellers account on ebay. Other than that they should use facebook or any of the others that do not require a account to sell goods.

Sandtree

blueelise said:

Sandtree said:

blueelise said:

I just don't believe coercing this consent should be legal? Is it?

Yes, a company can choose what T&Cs it wants such as keeping payment details on file. You are free to select a different site to attempt to sell your motorcycle through... no one is coercing you to use eBay but if you want to then you have to follow their rules.

What is your concern with giving them the card number? Do you also refuse to hand your card over at Hotels etc who typically will also require a number to be stored to pay for incidentals and damages etc.

I don't have an issue with giving consent to storing my card details for the purpose of completing the transaction, it's the consent for indefinitely part I don't like, I would have thought it was an issue for GDPR but judging from the feedback I must be in the wrong.

With your consent it is fairly easy for them to justify keeping it indefinitely because you've kept your account open suggests you want the ability to use the facility again in the future.

Consent isnt the only mechanism that a business can retain data under, there are a host of other options but the justifications must be more robust and storing excessive data is an issue under GDPR. Were this not the case you could withdraw your consent after getting a loan and then were they not able to ignore the request under legitimate business needs then the loan would have to be written off.

Similarly many records need to be kept for 6 years because thats the law of limitations if someone was to want to sue for breach of contract etc and a company is at a distinct disadvantage if its unable to comment on a situation because they routinely delete all records after 3 years.

Given eBay have already told you that they can be removed after payment this is all a moot point though and given you have to consent to the T&Cs which includes storing the card number on signing up to a Sellers Account then the card details are initially kept under consent.