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Ebay charged International Fees to me when I’ve excluded all international shipping
I successfully countered this fee and was refunded by Ebay yesterday, but I wanted to let other sellers know that this occurred and Ebay is doing it as a matter of policy unless we all object.
I sold a watch to someone in England a couple of years ago and was appalled at the high transaction fees for an overseas sale. Ebay calls this the “International Fee”. I promptly excluded all sales out of the country to avoid these fees in the future. Last week, I sold a watch to someone in Portland OR. I’m not sure if they used an international shipper or if that is their current address. At any rate, eBay charged me the International Fee for an out of the country sale, saying that the buyer’s registered address was in Canada. Um, NO. That is for the buyer to be assessed or eBay to absorb, but if I’ve excluded international sales, I’m not paying that fee. It’s not transparent, and I’ve done everything on my end to avoid it.
I hope others will speak up and add their voices to object to this non-transparent fee. I question the legality of eBay making sellers pay this fee (I’m sure it’s done to encourage international sales) without their express consent. Thanks and have a great 2026!
monroe67
Mentor6 months ago"Last week, I sold a watch to someone in Portland OR. I’m not sure if they used an international shipper or if that is their current address. At any rate, eBay charged me the International Fee for an out of the country sale, saying that the buyer’s registered address was in Canada. Um, NO. That is for the buyer to be assessed or eBay to absorb, but if I’ve excluded international sales, I’m not paying that fee. It’s not transparent, and I’ve done everything on my end to avoid it."
Where to start?
On eBay, you cannot exclude international sales.
You may exclude shipping to addresses outside the United States.
But, as you yourself state (admit?), the shipping address for the watch you sold was in Oregon. Oregon is still legally, officially, validly one of the 50 United States of America. Thus, you did not ship ("send") your watch to an "international" address.
You state, "but if I’ve excluded international sales, I’m not paying that fee."
Again, you are not allowed to exclude international sales.
As for your "not paying that fee," eBay will retain that fee before they send your payout to your bank. You have no choice to pay it or not, once the transaction is completed, meaning that your buyer has paid and you have shipped to the address that eBay has provided to you.
"I hope others will speak up and add their voices to object to this non-transparent fee. I question the legality of eBay making sellers pay this fee (I’m sure it’s done to encourage international sales) without their express consent."
This, and your first sentence suggesting that "all [eBay sellers] object" to eBay's International Fee policy, is technically in violation of eBay's Community Guidelines for these forums, as an attempt to call others to action in questioning the legality of eBay's policies.
By the way, um, YES, eBay's fees, including the International Fee, are legal.
eburtonlab
Mentor6 months agoThe fee in your case is assessed based on the registration location of the buyer, even if the seller is actually shipping the item to a domestic address.
This is because the fee is designed to cover the additional costs of money being transferred across a national border, regardless of where the item goes.
That is why excluding international shipping will not ensure you are not charged such a fee.
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/selling-fees?id=4822#section8
You can avoid the international fee by using the eBay International Shipping Program:
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/shipping-items/setting-shipping-options/ebay-international-shipping-program?id=5348
glixon1966
OP6 months agoThank you for the thoughtful answer. This assist me to adjust my settings and avoid this fee in the future. I guess I still find the fee troubling in that Ebay shifts these costs on to the seller instead of the buyer; it seems sleazy imho.
eburtonlab
Mentor6 months agoYou are welcome.
I guess I still find the fee troubling in that Ebay shifts these costs on to the seller instead of the buyer;
If you want to pass those fees on to your buyers, you can do so. Calculate the percentage of your sales subject to that tax, multiply that percentage by the fee percentage, and then raise all your prices by that amount. So if about six percent of your total sales volume incurs such fees, multiply six by 1.65% to get approximately 0.1%. If you raise all your prices by 0.1% and set that money aside you should be able to cover the foreign transaction fee for your foreign transactions.
comics-scifi-collectibles
Mentor6 months ago@glixon1966 You were lucky to receive a fee refund.
The fee is stated on the fees page so it is part of what we sellers agree to by using the site.
International fee
If your registered address is in the US and you offer eBay International Shipping for your eligible listings, you won't be charged an international fee when your eligible item sells.
If you're not using eBay International Shipping to ship your item, we charge an international fee if either:
This fee is calculated as 1.65% of the total amount of the sale and is automatically deducted from your sales.
While I agree that the buyer should be paying the international fee, and they may be charged one by their funding source, it is legal for eBay to charge a seller the fee since it is stated on the selling fees policy page.
mr_lincoln
Mentor6 months agoHi @glixon1966
So how did you get eBay to credit the International sales fee to you?
I seem to recall years ago when PayPal was the Payment Processor that they had a setting to block foreign funding sources. eBay has refused to set that feature up with Adyen, their current Payment Processor. This may be the real problem and on a certain level it is forcing Sellers to sell internationally to foreign Buyers who use forwarding services.