EBay. Some rules explained

[1967PF44]

So for those of us that list “Airsoft”  items on eBay regularly you may be confused why some listings are removed yet other listings for identical or similar items are allowed to remain.

 

tonight I finally managed to speak with one of their policy team managers, who gave me 40 minutes of his time and actually answered every question asked, without evasion (my previous experience of appealing a removed item, has just been met with evasive answers, and I promise someone from the policy or escalations team will call you back to explain- never happens! ) 

 

Some of the answers made a lot of sense  , and I thought I’d share the information given.

 

so here goes, and happy to answer any questions or clarify anything I’ve not explained well.

 

Firstly Ebay worldwide are bound by California law, and are only licensed to sell certain items on their platform - it seems odd, but that licence affects their platform worldwide.   California law prevents the sale by e-commerce of any articles that can be attached to automatic rifles, or that replicate attachments for automatic rifles (where they chance or enhance their operation). So things like, Stocks, vertical foregrips, hand stops, suppressors. Etc are all regulated. 
 

They have an Airsoft policy preventing the sale of Airsoft guns, receivers, and this includes BB guns and pellets guns.  The6 do allow ammunition but interestingly only up to 0.25 calibre is the term they used. The adviser was unsure what that meant but he assumed it was BB WEIGHT., it’s more likely to be air-pellet calibre (I would guess) 

 

The next thing of interest is how they deal with an unauthorised item.   They often flag breaches of the firearms policy as breaches of the airsoft policy if Airsoft is specifically mentioned in the advert. They do that actually to help us UK (specifically UK) airsofters out. Because….3 firearms policy strikes and your account is suspended/removed from the platform if you’re in the US.  So the penalties for breaching Airsoft policy are much less serious - they amount to a “education warning”   Your account is then flagged and monitored for attempts to relist the item. 
 

They removed over 1750 Airsoft suppressor listings (as an example, that’s what I had removed) in the last 28 days.  They had no reason to believe any of them were real, they simply are just not allowed by California E commerce laws. Which they claim they are working to change with a category amendment to the trading licence through the courts - however Airsoft is flagged as a tiny niche market for them and it’s not a priority.

 

Finally how are your dodgy items detected, - some but actually very few are by keyword, and image algorithms that have them flagged and checked manually. mostly they are checked by batch sampling on item numbers (an invigilator or verifier will be sent 500 items to check every few days)  and they are flagged if it’s not right, then removed. 
 

He provided a lot more information about the processes and the legal reasons behind the issue, and why they can’t easily change rules from country to country - but the post is already to long and quite boring for most. 
 

this will be useful to ebayers who don’t understand why their items are removed when they don’t appear to breach the stated policy. 

[RostokMcSpoons]

Very interesting, thanks for posting that.

 

This perhaps ties in with the fact that AliExpress seems to have a lot less airsoft content on it than it used to - specifically suppressors, as I'm shopping for a chunky one to stick on my new 416.  It seems Ali only sell suppressor covers now... perhaps they too are restricting them to comply with foreign laws.

[1967PF44]

5 minutes ago, RostokMcSpoons said:

Very interesting, thanks for posting that.

 

This perhaps ties in with the fact that AliExpress seems to have a lot less airsoft content on it than it used to - specifically suppressors, as I'm shopping for a chunky one to stick on my new 416.  It seems Ali only sell suppressor covers now... perhaps they too are restricting them to comply with foreign laws.

That sounds very possible, the guy actually spent a fair bit of time trying to explain worldwide e-commerce licenses, a lot of which was over my head lol, and he spoke a lot about recent civil actions and prosecutions against eBay (he referred to them as significant “law suits”) that resulted in eBay having to tighten up there compliance management of what he called “unlicensed sales” 

.

[EDcase]

Interesting but still sucks that they have to comply to such restrictions worldwide just because of one region. ?

 

 

 

Edited January 31, 2023 by EDcase

[sjhirst]

Yep, its a shame. I regularly sold my mp5 handguards on there, then they were removed.

Apparently because they will fit the real firearm they are not allowed.

 

[Rogerborg]

I'd say "God damn California", but I'm convinced that She already has.

 

Can't buy a toy silencer on eBay UK, but you can walk into a shop in California, steal $950 worth of them, and walk out with no consequences.

[Leo Greer]

Cali is a sinking ship. Let it die, folks. I’m just hoping they don’t bring too much of their crazy here as a result. (Texas, USA native here) It’s literally a max exodus right now.

 

Interestingly I’ve never had any issue buying airsoft items off eBay, including replicas, fake suppressors, rails, etc, even parts that will fit real rifles.

[Rogerborg]

3 hours ago, Leo Greer said:

 (Texas, USA native here) It’s literally a max exodus right now.

 

I understand that Austin is turning into East Los Angeles.  

 

 

3 hours ago, Leo Greer said:

Interestingly I’ve never had any issue buying airsoft items off eBay, including replicas, fake suppressors, rails, etc, even parts that will fit real rifles.

 

The UK is a scrupulous rules-follower, even when nobody else is.  We're a nation of park-keepers and curtain-twitching snitches, sadly.