eBay fees. Is it legal for eBay to charge their 13.25% against the sales tax?

Question

We sold a item on ebay and they factored their fess at 13.25% on the total charged to the buyer which was the selling price, the shipping costs, and the sales tax. Is it Lagan for them to include the sales tax in the total when calculating their fees?

woodland_gnome · Answer

Why wouldn't it be legal?

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.

evry1nositswindy · Answer

The fee is charged on the total purchase (item + shipping + tax). Paypal did the same thing.

stuff4divas · Answer

@jefflaurie8par yes, lots of online platforms do it