Is eBay Practicing Unethical & Illegal Discrimination?

[zenpowerstore]

eBay appears to administer accounts unfairly, where some sellers can sell near anything, while other sellers are suspended without stated reason.  If eBay allows sellers on one hand, but not others, for similar services and products then this is discriminatory.  It's no longer a matter of any policy, but a violation of business ethics and even the law.

Such discriminatory actions can be in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Equality Act 2010.  As eBay is located in California, even more laws can apply on this matter.  How do others feel about unfair discriminatory actions?  What can be done about it?

[postingid7659]

eBay certainly discriminates and their ethics are questionable, but whether or not it's illegal is open for debate. 

In most instances they have no idea what gender, religion or race you are so those rules don't apply.  

[glasser]

I suspect some of this has to do with automation.  Everybody claims they are using some kind of AI to make systems work. My guess is most are some kind of keyword search. Some listing likely taken down automatically based on a word and some maybe have people reviewing. In other words, inconsistency.

I sell older items. I had a listing taken down because I used a brand name with a ? after because the item  was unsigned. I was 95% sure it was that brand. I was told I can't use the brand name in that way. However, if I had just named the brand, whether it was or wasn't without the question mark, my listing would have been fine. Of course that makes no sense and my listing was actually quite honest.

As others have stated there were many listings just like mine not taken down because in fact this brand of glass is often unmarked an attribution can be hard.  

In consistent application of the rules never works well.

[zenpowerstore]

Appears eBay just does people dirty, as I'm finding out.  You can have just registered an account, if they don't like a listing or whatever, then banned.  No warning and no explanation given, straight to life time ban, just because they can.  There is no debate, there is no arbitration.  I've yet to see any other large company treat users as horribly as eBay. 

And no, you can report, complain, or give examples about other sellers all day and every day.  Send them examples, pictures, whatever...  Looks like "privileged sellers" will still be there (years before and probably years from now). 

Customer or technical support (appears to be from India... maybe), will just ignore it and rudely hang up the phone.  Then ignore all emails afterwards.  That's if the person even manages to get a real person on the phone, which will be a major battle by itself.

[ed8108]

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@zenpowerstore wrote:  How do others feel about unfair discriminatory actions?  What can be done about it?

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         What do you intend doing ?

[zenpowerstore]

If a seller from China is allowed to do whatever, while sellers from other countries get banned, that is discriminatory.  It means the published policies are not being fairly applied, people are being deprived of opportunity, or eBay is doing harm to users or business.  Denial of services on a discriminatory basis, can mean a violation of law.  Which would also explain attempts to hide it and give no explanations.

[tdumonde2014]

Do you care to share what you listed that resulted in a Lifetime Ban!

[zenpowerstore]

Actually, eBay knows quite a lot.  They can know or find out your nationality, ethnicity, or gender quite easily.  They have various sources of information that they tap into.  When you sign up with eBay, you are providing details like credit cards, PayPal accounts, location, etc...  That a tremendous start, not to mention the cookies they place on your computer.

[ckimodog]

5 stars,  Pika! Well said. ☺

[magic*moonbeams]

I see things like that too. Like when Covid hit hard, you couldn't sell anit-bac stuff here because of price gouging, unless you were an "authorized seller" to sell that kind of product.. Well, how do they decide who is authorized and who isn't.  Because you could still sell the Bath and Body Works PocketBac holders, just not the actual hand gels... And when I tried to list one, it said I wasn't allowed to list that item... Ok, well I've been here long enough and have an excellent selling record as far as shipping my items on time, always shipping the items, I follow the policy for listings (I do have a couple of negatives, but who cares, any cases were ended with seller resolution -- as in, when eBay forced me to appease the buyer, I did so on my own without eBay stepping in and doing it for me...

So why is that I saw sellers with like 5 feedbacks who've been here for all of like 2 minutes listing them no problem.  They hadn't even proved themselves.. 😕  It's like thanks eBay for yet another kick in the backside *thumbs up* 

I had listed a Unicorn coin purse for &8.95 (a reasonable price for that brand new item) and was adding as a freebie, a Unicorn theme Pocketbac... eBay pulled that listing and accused me of price gouging on that one, yet at that same time someone else was selling a lot of 3 Pocketbacs for $24.95 for the lot of 3, and had 6 lots available. I reported it cause I was like, um, now THAT is price gouging.... eBay did NOTHING and let the seller sellout of all 6 lots... So they got to make $150, and I wasn't allowed to make $9. like wow, seriously eBay??

[pikabo-icu]

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@zenpowerstore wrote:

If a seller from China is allowed to do whatever, while sellers from other countries get banned, that is discriminatory.  It means the published policies are not being fairly applied, people are being deprived of opportunity, or eBay is doing harm to users or business.  Denial of services on a discriminatory basis, can mean a violation of law.  Which would also explain attempts to hide it and give no explanations.

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It may feel that way but legally it is not.

eBay can choose to do business in any country it likes or to not do business.

I don't believe eBay condones what China is doing but the practices are so widespread it's near impossible to police them all. One store goes down, another goes up and buyers keep buying from these unscrupulous sellers..

On any given day you can search eBay and find thousands of violations, fakes, banned items, drop-shipping and so on- it doesn't mean eBay is fine with it.. Check again a few days later and many will be removed. 

There is no way to prevent it with a venue this large- the only action is a reaction and that's never 100% effective. 

What happened with your specific issue? Did they remove a listing or what? Perhaps we can figure out why yours got poofed, if that's the case..

[downunder-61]

OP seems very reluctant to share details, until they do, I for one have no  understanding of the issue other than to suspect it is just another seller annoyed about something they don't fully comprehend.

Debate and discussion is one sided, so ends up going in circles.

Time for me to go to bed (2.54am here LOL)

[zenpowerstore]

Probably best that I start a separate thread listing my exact experience.  But believe me, from what I've seen, eBay is the worse large company that I have ever dealt with.  It couldn't get more corrupt or worse, in my opinion, unless a person were dealing directly with a street gang or mafia.  

Sorry to disagree, but I strong believe eBay knows exactly what sellers in China or wherever are doing and condone it as various members in the organization see fit.  Enforcement of eBay policy hinges around "who" does the enforcement, not just blind algorithms.  Conscious decisions are made to let things slide or crush others.

[pikabo-icu]

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@zenpowerstore wrote:

Probably best that I start a separate thread listing my exact experience.  But believe me, from what I've seen, eBay is the worse large company that I have ever dealt with.  It couldn't get more corrupt or worse, in my opinion, unless a person were dealing directly with a street gang or mafia.  

Sorry to disagree, but I strong believe eBay knows exactly what sellers in China or wherever are doing and condone it as various members in the organization see fit.  Enforcement of eBay policy hinges around "who" does the enforcement, not just blind algorithms.  Conscious decisions are made to let things slide or crush others.

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Ok well we don't entirely disagree on the China thing.

I think there are a LOT of sellers that have big issues with the selling practices that are allowed to continue from there.. I have no idea why it's allowed but I don't see them as competition really.

Most of what they sell is cheap carp.  Probably worried about causing an international incident or something LOL IDK.

Nobody wants to shame you here- we would like to figure out what actually happened with your account, again other sellers violating policy be dammed (and may soon be)- worry about what is happening with YOUR wallet. 

If you don't want to share, that's your prerogative but without the info we are just spitting in the wind..

I know they have cracked down hard on some items, vape stuff, adult material, firearms parts and ammo, relisting items after deletion can net you a hard swat-  it's all speculation without input from you. 

[zenpowerstore]

The point was not my specific experience, though I will start a separate thread about such.

The point was about the unethical behavior of eBay and for others to talk about their experiences.  It was to bring up the fact that eBay can have a tremendous negative effects on businesses and individuals through discriminatory practices where their stated public policy is not fairly applied. 

And that they hide their decisions, because banning one seller for selling the same service or product as the other, is knowingly discriminatory and in violation of various laws.  

[inhawaii]

It's the ole  "i got a speeding ticket but all those other people didn't"  syndrome.  

Ebay can't find and punish everyone.  Some will always slip through the cracks.

It's not discrimination.