eBay can hold seller funds and suspend accounts, and dispute outcomes often favor the platform's process. It shares data widely and applies arbitration in the US.
The clauses that could affect you the most. Read these even if you skip everything else.
You are forced into individual binding arbitration and waive class actions unless you mail a written opt-out within 30 days of first accepting the agreement.
eBay's total liability to you is capped at as little as $100 even if it is at fault.
Any content you post gives eBay a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicensable license, and you waive your moral rights over it.
You waive claims against eBay including ones you don't even know about yet in user disputes.
eBay can suspend or terminate your account and services for any reason at its sole discretion, and can charge fees or report unpaid seller balances to credit bureaus.
Browse what the terms actually say — filter by severity or by topic.
Mandatory binding arbitration
⚖️Forced arbitration💬 Unless you actively opt out within 30 days, you must resolve nearly all disputes with eBay through private arbitration instead of court, and you give up your right to a jury trial.
“It also contains an Agreement to Arbitrate which will, with limited exception, require you to submit claims you have against us or related third parties to binding and final arbitration, unless you opt out of the Agreement to Arbitrate in accordance with section 19.B.9”
Class action waiver
🚫No class action💬 You cannot join with other users in a class action lawsuit against eBay; you can only bring claims individually.
“you will only be permitted to pursue claims against us or related third parties on an individual basis, not as a plaintiff or class member in any class or representative action or proceeding”
AI use in services
🤖AI training on your data💬 eBay uses AI tools to power and personalize its services; accuracy is not guaranteed. This is standard disclosure of AI usage.
“We may use artificial intelligence or AI-powered tools and products to provide and improve our Services, to offer you a customized and personalized experience, to provide you with enhanced customer service, and to support fraud detection; availability and accuracy of these tools are not guaranteed.”
No guarantee of transactions
🛡️Limits their liability💬 eBay is just a marketplace and does not vouch for the items, sellers, or buyers you deal with — you transact at your own risk.
“eBay has no control over and does not guarantee: the existence, quality, safety, or legality of items advertised; the truth or accuracy of users' content or listings”
Termination at sole discretion
⛔Account termination💬 eBay can suspend or shut down your account and remove your content at its own discretion if it believes you violated the rules.
“we may, in our sole discretion and without limiting other remedies, limit, suspend, or terminate your user account(s) and access to our Services, delay or remove hosted content”
Service refusal for any reason
⛔Account termination💬 eBay can refuse or terminate your access for any reason it chooses, even without a specific violation.
“we reserve the right to refuse, modify, or terminate all or part of our Services to anyone for any reason at our discretion.”
Fees for off-platform contact
📌Other💬 If eBay merely suspects you tried to complete a sale off-platform, it can charge you fees as if the sale happened on eBay.
“if we believe you are violating our policy on buying or selling outside of eBay, you may be charged final value fees.”
Full vehicle warranty disclaimer
🛡️Limits their liability💬 eBay disclaims all responsibility for vehicles sold through its site, including their condition, safety, and even title — buying a vehicle is entirely at your own risk.
“EBAY DOES NOT WARRANT AGAINST DEFECTS IN ANY VEHICLE, AND DOES NOT MAKE ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING REPRESENTATIONS, PROMISES, OR STATEMENTS AS TO THE VEHICLE’S VALUE, CONDITION, SAFETY, CAPABILITY, FITNESS, OR MERCHANTABILITY”
Credit bureau reporting
📌Other💬 If you owe eBay money as a seller and don't pay, eBay can report you to credit bureaus, damaging your credit score.
“eBay, or the collection agencies we retain, may also report information about your account to credit bureaus, and as a result, late payments, missed payments, or other defaults on your account may be reflected in your credit report.”
Fee changes with short notice
📝Can change terms anytime💬 eBay can raise selling fees with only 14 days' notice posted on the site.
“We may change our selling fees from time to time by posting the changes on the eBay site fourteen (14) days in advance, but with no advance notice required for temporary promotions or any changes that result in the reduction of fees.”
Automatic listing renewal
🔄Auto-renews💬 Your fixed-price listings automatically renew each month (potentially incurring fees) until sold out or manually ended.
“Your fixed-price listings may renew automatically every calendar month, based on the listing terms at the time, until all quantities sell or the listing is ended by you or eBay”
Broad use of your listings and content
📄Claims your content💬 eBay can use your listings, username, reviews, and feedback for promotion anywhere, including third-party advertising, without extra payment to you.
“eBay may publish and promote your listings, including related content such as username, product reviews and feedback, in any format and through any channel, including across any eBay Services, our partners, or third-party property or advertising medium”
Binding purchase contract on bid/commit
📌Other💬 Once you bid, commit, or have a winning bid, you're legally bound to buy — even before payment is due.
“You enter into a legally binding contract to purchase an item when you buy the item, commit to buy the item, your offer for the item is accepted, you have the winning bid for the item”
Auto-enrollment in shipping program
📌Other💬 Listing on eBay.com automatically enrolls you in the International Shipping Program unless you opt out via settings.
“By listing your item on eBay.com you agree to the EIS Terms and Conditions. If you choose not to participate in EIS, you can opt out of the program by updating your shipping preferences.”
Perpetual, irrevocable content license
📄Claims your content💬 Any content you post gives eBay a permanent, free, worldwide license to use, sublicense, and build new products from it — this never expires, even if you leave.
“you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicensable (through multiple tiers) right to exercise any and all Intellectual Property Rights you have in that content in connection with our provision, expansion, and promotion of our Services, including development of new offerings”
Waiver of moral rights
📄Claims your content💬 You give up the ability to enforce your intellectual property and moral rights over your content against eBay and anyone they license it to.
“you waive your right to enforce your Intellectual Property Rights, including any moral rights, in that content against eBay, our assignees, our sublicensees”
Autodialed calls and texts
📥Data collection💬 eBay can contact you via autodialed/prerecorded calls and texts about your account, and for marketing if you consent.
“eBay may contact you using autodialed or prerecorded calls and text messages, at any telephone number, and by email to any email address that you have provided us”
Scanning of all messages
📥Data collection💬 Every message you send through eBay is automatically scanned and analyzed, may be manually reviewed, delayed, or withheld, and stored by eBay.
“eBay's automated systems may scan and analyze the contents of every message sent through its messaging platforms (including but not limited to chat and email channels), including messages between users”
Call recording without warning
📥Data collection💬 eBay can record your phone calls with them without advance warning.
“eBay may, without further notice or warning and in its discretion, monitor or record telephone conversations you or anyone acting on your behalf has with eBay or its agents”
Charges deducted from seller account
📌Other💬 eBay can refund buyers on your behalf and deduct that amount (plus shipping label and other fees) directly from your seller account.
“When an item is returned or if a transaction is canceled after payment has been completed, eBay may issue a refund to the buyer on the seller's behalf and charge the seller for the amount of the refund.”
Buyers cannot generally cancel
📌Other💬 As a buyer, you generally can't cancel an order once placed unless the seller agrees within the allowed window.
“Buyers generally do not have the right to cancel an order.”
Stored payment info and auto-charging
🗄️Data retention💬 eBay stores your card and can automatically charge it for any amounts it says you owe, including to recoup fraud or refund errors.
“you authorize eBay Payment Entities to charge your payment method(s) for any and all amounts arising from your use of our Services, including charges to recover the proceeds of any fraud perpetrated by you, or charges necessary to recoup amounts refunded to you in error”
Transactions can be frozen/held
📌Other💬 Your payments or funds can be declined, frozen, or held for a wide range of reasons at eBay's discretion.
“your transaction may be declined, frozen, or held for any reason including for suspected fraud, Anti-Money Laundering ("AML") compliance, compliance with economic or trade sanctions, in connection with eBay's internal risk controls”
Services provided 'as is'
🛡️Limits their liability💬 eBay provides its services with no warranties — you accept all the risk of using them.
“YOU AGREE THAT YOU ARE MAKING USE OF OUR SERVICES AT YOUR OWN RISK, AND THAT THEY ARE BEING PROVIDED TO YOU ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS.”
Liability capped at $100
🛡️Limits their liability💬 Even if eBay is at fault, the most you can recover is capped at the item price, fees you paid in the last 12 months, or $100 — whichever is greatest.
“our liability to you or to any third party is limited to the greatest of (a) any amounts due under the eBay Money Back Guarantee up to the price the item sold for on eBay (including any applicable sales tax) plus its original shipping costs, (b) the amount of fees in dispute, not to exceed the total fees you paid to us in the 12 months prior to the action giving rise to the liability, or (c) $100.”
Waiver of unknown claims
🛡️Limits their liability💬 You waive claims against eBay related to disputes with other users, including claims you don't even know about yet (a California Civil Code §1542-style waiver).
“you expressly waive any protections (whether statutory or otherwise) that would otherwise limit the coverage of this release to include only those claims which you may know or suspect to exist in your favor at the time of agreeing to this release.”
Broad user indemnification
🛡️Limits their liability💬 If someone sues eBay because of something you did, you have to cover eBay's costs and legal fees.
“You will indemnify and hold us ... harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable legal fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of your breach of this User Agreement, your improper use of our Services or your breach of any law or the rights of a third party.”
Utah law and forum
📍Jurisdiction💬 Any disputes are governed by Utah law and, if in court, must be filed in Salt Lake County, Utah — potentially far from where you live.
“the laws of the State of Utah, without regard to principles of conflict of laws, will govern this User Agreement”
Confidentiality of arbitration
⚖️Forced arbitration💬 Arbitration proceedings must be kept confidential, which prevents users from sharing information about patterns of eBay misconduct.
“You and eBay agree that all materials and documents exchanged during the arbitration proceedings shall be kept confidential and shall not be shared with anyone except the parties’ attorneys, accountants, or business advisors”
Loser-pays offer rule
⚖️Forced arbitration💬 If you reject a settlement offer and then win less than that offer in arbitration, you may have to pay eBay's costs from the time of the offer.
“If the offer made by one party is not accepted by the other party, and the other party fails to obtain a more favorable award, the other party shall not recover any post-offer costs to which they otherwise would be entitled and shall pay the offering party’s costs from the time of the offer.”
30-day arbitration opt-out
⚖️Forced arbitration💬 You can escape the arbitration requirement, but only by mailing a signed written notice within 30 days of first accepting the agreement.
“YOU CAN CHOOSE TO OPT OUT OF THIS AGREEMENT TO ARBITRATE ("OPT OUT") BY MAILING US A WRITTEN OPT-OUT NOTICE ... POSTMARKED NO LATER THAN 30 DAYS FROM THE DATE YOU FIRST ACCEPT THIS USER AGREEMENT.”
Unilateral amendment rights
📝Can change terms anytime💬 eBay can change the terms at any time with 30 days' notice, and simply continuing to use eBay means you accept the new terms.
“We may amend this User Agreement at any time by posting the amended terms on www.eBay.com. ... Your continued access or use of our Services constitutes your acceptance of the amended terms.”
Termination for any reason
⛔Account termination💬 eBay can end its agreement with you at any time for any reason, at its sole discretion.
“eBay may also terminate this Agreement with anyone at any time for any reason, at our sole discretion, by giving notice of such termination.”
Note: Data privacy rights are governed by a separate User Privacy Notice not included here. This agreement provides an opt-out from arbitration (within 30 days for new users) and marketing communications opt-out, but no explicit data deletion/access/portability rights.