You may have noticed, even if you don't live in California, that many websites now feature warning text similar to the following:
eBay provides a mechanism for this as well, however eBay has opted to NOT show their warning if they determine a customer is not in California.
For customers who are not signed into eBay while they browse the site, they determine this by IP geolocation.
This method is fraught with error however, as described in this article.
Additionally, eBay customers may use services which make IP geolocation impossible, including privacy VPN services like NordVPN or Private Internet Access.
California law provides no exemption for business who fail to notify customers because of errors in IP geolocation databases or customer usage of VPN services.
Penalties for violating Proposition 65 by failing to provide warnings can be as high as $2,500 per violation per day.
The law allows third parties (i.e. private law firms) to bring cases against companies who violate Prop 65. The third party is awarded one quarter of the civil fine in addition to attorney's fees should they succeed. Due to this, there is a whole cottage industry of law firms specializing in suing businesses who are not compliant with Prop 65.
eBay is recklessly exposing sellers who must comply with Proposition 65 to incredibly high fines and predatory lawsuits.
Even if you go out of your way to be compliant by setting up your products to display the Prop 65 warning, eBay will deliberately hide the warning you've set up using a method that is proven to be inaccurate. But they won't be the ones paying fines, you will be.
