Are Ebay allowed to charge the fee based on the total amount of the sale?

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I noticed that EBAY is calculating the fee on the total amount including the shipping fees. Are they allowed to do that by law? To me this is dishonest!

We calculate your fees based on the total amount of the sale. This includes the item price, shipping and handling costs, and applicable taxes and fees.

laboi1975

4 View listings

Posted 2 years ago·Last reply 2 years ago

3 comments

inceptions

Mentor2 years ago

27552 View listings

Payment processors charge a fee to process a payment - not just part of a payment. So yes, the fees is charged on the total sale. There isn't anything dishonest about. You agree to the fees every time you list an item for sale.

house*of*paws

Mentor2 years ago

779 View listings

Hi @laboi1975

Yes. It not only is allowed ... it is customary among payment processors. It's practically impossible to find a company that doesn't base it's fees on the total amount of the buyer's payment.

woodland_gnome

·2 years ago

23 View listings

Of course they are. Why would you think otherwise? The fee schedule is very clear about how the fees are calculated: "The total amount of the sale includes the item price, any handling charges, any shipping costs collected from the buyer (some exceptions apply), sales tax, and any other applicable fees." https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/selling-fees?id=4822#section2 How is that "dishonest"?

eBay acts as both a selling venue and a payment collection, and sellers pay fees for both functions. Back when PayPal handled most payment processing it based its fee on the total amount collected from the buyer, as do all payment processors that I am aware of, but eBay based it's "Final Value Fees" on only the price plus shipping fees the buyer paid (years ago it was only on the price but too many sellers evaded the fees by inflating the s/h while deflating the price). When eBay took over both functions it combined both fees into a single fee (which confusingly they continued to call "Final Value Fees") and decided the single fee would be based on the total payment but reduced the rate to lower than the prior total of the two rates.