2022 Global
Transparency
Report
May 2023
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eBay Connects People and Builds
Communities to Create Economic
Opportunity for All
Since its founding in 1995, eBay’s tools and technology have
been developed to empower our customers, providing eBay
users around the world the opportunity to thrive. Our platform
transcends borders to build community, bringing sellers and
buyers together around approximately 1.8 billion items in a
trusted experience. As a global ecommerce platform, eBay is
committed to the safety of its users and to protecting the integrity
of the products sold on its marketplace. eBay’s 2022 Global
Transparency Report outlines the many ways eBay seeks to ensure
that all users have a safe and trusted experience on the platform.
The data included covers the year of 2022, unless otherwise
noted.
eBay’s work to maintain the safety of its marketplace is a top
priority and is always evolving. New technologies are constantly
being developed and deployed, and eBay continuously works to
enhance its marketplace through improved policies, tools and
partnerships.
INTRODUCTION
133 million
global buyers
Approximately 1.8 billion
live items on the platform
at any given time
Connects millions of
buyers and sellers in more
than 190 markets around
the world
eBay “
By the Numbers
”
as of Q1 2023
Our customers are at the heart of everything we do at
eBay and that starts with creating a trusted, transparent
and safe marketplace for everyone.
– Jamie Iannone
President & CEO
“
”
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User Agreement and Policies
Preventing Counterfeit Items
eBay Policies
and Procedures
By engaging with eBay’s services, users are subject to eBay’s
User Agreement and User Privacy Notice. The User Agreement
explicitly requires that users refrain from violating any laws, third-
party rights and/or eBay policies. Users are also bound by policies
referenced by and incorporated into the User Agreement. By
integrating laws and third parties’ rights in the User Agreement in
this way, eBay has discretion to impose contractual sanctions (e.g.,
block or cancel items, restrict or suspend accounts, etc.) in cases
where eBay determines a user may have violated those laws or
third-party rights.
As part of this governance, eBay has developed policies to
address Prohibited and Restricted Items, Counterfeit Goods
and other Intellectual Property infringements, and International
Trading. These policies are designed to protect consumers and
provide clarity to sellers about what can and cannot be sold on our
platform (and under what conditions).
eBay is committed to ensuring goods sold on our platform
are authentic by using multiple layers of technology as well
as highly trained eBay investigators, all of which are back-
stopped by our buyer protection programs. Supported by
artificial intelligence (AI) technology, eBay proactively blocked
88 million suspected counterfeit items from being listed in
2022, while proactively removing 1.3 million items following
a review by eBay investigators. In addition, eBay maintains
channels for rights owners and community members to report
suspected counterfeit items and last year quickly removed
over 1.6 million items based on these reports. These efforts
are supplemented by eBay’s Authenticity Guarantee program,
where professionally trained authenticators physically inspect
all eligible items in the collectible sneakers, luxury watches,
luxury handbags, jewelry and trading cards categories and
verify an item’s authenticity before it is shipped to the buyer.
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eBay continues to invest heavily in AI and image detection
technology to proactively identify and address suspicious
behavior and potentially problematic items. eBay algorithms
evaluate items during the listing creation process to identify those
that could be prohibited under our policies. These algorithms
flag items for review by eBay investigators or can in some cases
automatically block the item from being published entirely. If an
item is determined to violate eBay policy, it is removed and the
seller is notified with an explanation as to why it was removed.
eBay also has developed robust measures to stop bad actors and
deter repeat policy violations.
In addition to the 88 million suspected counterfeit items eBay
blocked in 2022, our AI tools blocked an additional 295 million
prohibited items from being listed. This is approximately a 20%
decrease from the number of prohibited items blocked in 2021
and was primarily driven by a reduced need for COVID-related
blocks. This also demonstrates how AI technology adapts to stop
bad actors and prevent problematic items.
Thanks to our partnerships with brands and rights owners and
the information they provide, our AI continues to get stronger.
Technology and People Working Together
Active use of our Verified Rights Owner (“VeRO”) Program by
rights owners is essential to obtaining the information we need to
better detect infringing or prohibited items and keep them off our
platform.
We also have highly-trained eBay experts across the globe who
work around the clock to quickly remove potentially problematic
items. These proactive efforts have been highly successful,
helping us to remove over 2.8 million potentially counterfeit and
prohibited items in 2022 and preventing buyers from purchasing
them.
In addition to the technology and human experts that keep our
platform safe, eBay allows its community of users to report items
that violate policy. Any registered eBay user can use the “Report
Item’’ functionality to report a potentially counterfeit or otherwise
non-compliant item. Community access to this reporting
mechanism has been in place since 2007. In 2022, we removed
773,000 items based on reports from our community through our
Report Item functionality. As we continue to invest in proactive
detection technology, the number of reports received through our
“Report Item” functionality declined in 2022 by 24% compared to
2021 and by 54% compared to 2020.
In early 2023, eBay acquired 3PM Shield, a provider of advanced AI-based marketplace compliance solutions. This further
enhanced eBay’s world-class monitoring solutions with new technologies designed to prevent the sale of counterfeit items,
unsafe products and illegal goods. Bringing 3PM Shield to eBay is part of eBay’s ongoing commitment to provide sellers and
buyers with a safe and trusted platform enabled by technology. 3PM Shield enhances eBay’s ability to address suspicious or
harmful seller behavior, and potentially problematic items.
“It is a top priority to help ensure that eBay remains a safe and trusted environment for our global community of sellers and
buyers, particularly to prevent counterfeits and unsafe or illegal products,” said Zhi Zhou, Chief Risk Officer at eBay. “3PM
Shield has been a valued and effective external partner in helping eBay tackle these challenges and we look forward to
unlocking additional capabilities as we bring their technologies in-house.”
eBay Acquires 3PM Shield
Prohibited &
Restricted Items
Intellectual Property
Violations
Listing Violations
Items Blocked by Filtering Algorithms
For the calendar year 2022
295 million
88 million
273 million
Prohibited &
Restricted Items
Intellectual Property
Violations
Items Proactively Removed by an eBay Investigator
1.5 million
1.3 million
For the calendar year 2022
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Authenticity Guarantee
Authenticity Guarantee Spotlight: Jewelry
eBay’s “Authenticity Guarantee” program is a post-sale authentication service for luxury watches, luxury handbags, jewelry, sneakers
and trading cards. Launched in September 2020, the program offers inspection by professionally trained authenticators, which provides
an extra layer of trust and confidence for buyers. The program also offers seller protections, such as intermediated returns and the ability
to offer items as “final sale” in some regions, with the confidence that authenticated items will not be subject to returns.
In 2022, eBay’s Authenticity Guarantee program enjoyed regional and category expansions, as well as new partnerships, to further
improve the safety of eBay marketplaces. Sneaker buyers in the US, UK, Canada, Germany, and Australia are now able to confidently
purchase sneakers that are authenticated by eBay’s expert team of authenticators. Handbag buyers in the US, UK, Germany & Australia
now benefit from post-sale authentication, as well as watch buyers in the US, UK and Germany. US buyers of select jewelry and trading
cards are also now protected by eBay’s Authenticity Guarantee. In 2022, eBay also delivered another protection to US trading card
enthusiasts: the eBay vault. Trading cards valued over $250 are eligible for storage in eBay’s secure, insured and climate-controlled
storage facility.
Authenticity Guarantee continues to change the way people buy and sell watches, handbags, jewelry, trading cards and sneakers on
eBay. Beyond 2022, eBay will continue to expand the program to additional product categories and geographies.
Buyer looks for jewelry
with the Authenticity
Guarantee badge and
makes their purchase.
Seller mails the jewelry
purchased by the
buyer to our certified
jewelry experts.
Certified jewelry
experts at GIA inspect
the details to ensure the
item is authentic.
The certified jewelry
experts send the buyer’s
jewelry via 3-day shipping.
1 2 3 4
2.1 million items removed in 2022 includes 1.3 million items removed based on reports from Verified Rights Owners (VeRO) and 773,000 items removed based on reports from the
eBay Community. In our 2021 Transparency Report we incorrectly labeled the 2.6 million “Total Items Removed Based on Flags from Third Parties (eBay Community and Rights
Owners)” as “Verified Rights Owners (VeRO) Notices for Counterfeit and other IP Violations”.
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2020
2021
2022
Items Removed Based on Reports from Third Parties
(eBay Community and Rights Owners)
1
3.5 million
2.1 million
2.7 million
Account Suspensions
For the calendar year 2022
17,500
9,300
Prohibited &
Restricted Items
Intellectual Property
Violations
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“Linda’s Stuff has been authenticating our products since the start of our business 22
years ago. We have always believed in getting that stamp of authenticity from an expert.
When the Authenticity Guarantee program came around, we saw that our buyers became
super confident in their purchases and as a seller we also felt protected. The Authenticity
Guarantee program makes a world of difference and personally as a consumer I would
not purchase anything without this stamp of approval. I am also excited to see the
expansion of the Authenticity Guarantee program. I love the fact that eBay is now
authenticating other luxury goods such as jewelry, watches and sneakers.”
Linda L.
eBay Seller, United States
“I’m a clothing archivist and look for unique, authentic vintage high-end fashion pieces
from all over the world. I own the country’s largest clothing archive for an Italian brand
and am constantly searching eBay to expand my collection. eBay’s reach, selection and
the Global Shipping Program is super helpful in getting things to me both as a buyer and
seller. My type of buying is super niche and eBay is the place that helps me find exactly
what I need.”
Jennie W.
eBay Buyer, United States
Rights Owners
Central to keeping eBay a safe and trusted marketplace is its
partnership with over 68,000 active intellectual property (IP)
rights owners registered through eBay’s Verified Rights Owner
(“VeRO”) Program. The VeRO Program was launched in 1998 and
enables IP rights owners to report potentially counterfeit items or
otherwise IP infringing listings to eBay. eBay promptly removes
listings reported by rights owners as IP infringing, notifies the
seller and reviews the seller account for possible enforcement
action. The VeRO Program embodies eBay’s commitment to
provide a safe place to buy and sell that respects IP owners’ rights.
eBay recognizes the importance of maintaining strong,
collaborative relationships with rights owners, their
representatives and trade associations. eBay’s work with rights
owners is collaborative, involving frequent interactions between
eBay and its external partners. eBay encourages rights owners to
provide feedback and to share their expertise to enhance eBay’s
capabilities to address bad actors. Active engagement between
eBay and rights owners allows for ongoing refinement of eBay’s
processes. Strong partnerships with brands enable us to detect
more potentially infringing products proactively, refine tools and
ultimately protect rights owners and consumers.
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Consumer Protection
Payments
eBay takes a comprehensive approach to protecting its buyers and
sellers through a robust combination of people, policies and tools.
The eBay feedback system is a cornerstone of the trusted buying
experience on our marketplace. Seller feedback allows our users
to shop with confidence by providing an opportunity for buyers to
evaluate sellers prior to making a purchase. eBay also features user
product reviews, helping prospective buyers learn more about
items prior to purchase.
eBay continuously seeks to create a safe and streamlined buying
experience, including increasing buyer awareness of product
listings and seller information. In addition, eBay prominently
displays next to the product description of every item, in an area
commonly referred to as the “buy box”: the price; shipping costs;
estimated delivery date; item condition; the item location; who
is selling the product; a way to contact the seller directly; the
seller’s feedback and detailed seller ratings; the applicable returns
policy; and access to other products listed for sale by the seller.
This formatting and availability of information allow users to more
clearly understand from whom they are making a purchase and the
material terms of the purchase. eBay’s Money Back Guarantee,
applicable to most items purchased on eBay, also helps protect
buyers when an item is not received, or the item they receive is
different from what was described in the item listing, and they are
unable to resolve the dispute with the seller.
Ensuring frictionless and trustworthy payments experiences for
our buyers and sellers is core to driving customer choice, trust,
and safety on eBay. In October 2021, we completed a multi-
year payments transformation journey globally with the goal of
simplifying end-to-end customer experiences, enabling customer
choice, and delivering significant operational efficiencies for our
sellers when they sell on eBay.
In 2022, we unlocked value for our buyers and sellers by
launching new and secure ways to pay and get paid on eBay.
We are continuing to invest in our payments experiences and
risk capabilities to deepen customer trust and safety. These
efforts span bringing Know Your Customer (KYC) capabilities in
key markets in-house for more rigorous control and monitoring,
automating Anti-Money Laundering (AML) monitoring and
reporting, reducing unpaid items on our marketplace, improving
payments disputes experiences, and enhancing the robustness of
our risk and identity platforms.
As the regulatory landscape evolves rapidly, eBay and its
regulated payments entities are fully committed to ensuring
compliance with relevant regulatory obligations globally in a
timely manner.
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In addition to eBay’s Privacy Principles and the practices
described in its regularly updated User Privacy Notice and User
Cookie Notice, eBay was one of the first companies globally to
establish a set of Corporate Rules (also referred to as Binding
Corporate Rules). These were first approved by the Luxembourg
National Data Protection Commission in 2009. The Corporate
Rules are a commitment by eBay to adequately protect its users’
personal information globally regardless of where the data resides
and, depending upon the user’s location, may provide additional
privacy rights through the relevant privacy regulator or a court.
In close cooperation with all relevant European Data Protection
authorities, eBay constantly works to maintain and update these
rules to reflect current practices and our corporate values.
Privacy
eBay works to protect the privacy of its users’ personal
information at all times. eBay’s Privacy Principles guide our
employees in providing users with an experience that is safe,
secure and trustworthy. These include the following:
Be transparent with the information we collect;
Allow users to easily access and update their own
data;
Be a guardian for user data and user privacy;
Be accountable to our privacy commitments;
Give users meaningful choices in privacy;
Limit the sharing of customer information; and
Build and maintain safe products and services.
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“I have enjoyed buying and selling on eBay for years
and decided to utilize my experience and expertise
to cash in on the downsizing of my life. eBay cares
about privacy, is a safe and trusted marketplace,
and allows people of all ages and from all walks of
life to be their own boss. This is where dreams are
born. Just add hard work and determination, mix
and enjoy!”
Theresa C.
eBay Seller, United States
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“For the last 50 years, I have run a watch parts business that operated mostly on mail order.
But in 2020, I began selling online on eBay and now roughly half of my sales are through
my online presence. eBay has increased the visibility of my company after a time and has
honored my business and myself with the honor of being named the Emerging Ecommerce
Entrepreneur of the year.”
Dorina P.
eBay Seller, Canada
“Global Watch Straps has been on eBay since 1999. Thanks to eBay, we have been able to
deepen our specialty in watch movement parts, with great global reach. eBay gave me the
ability to discover my personal strengths and build my reputation as a global seller. eBay
keeps developing towards the needs of the global market and provides tools to sell and buy
globally in a safe and reliable way. Feedback, Money Back Guarantee and Terapeak makes
eBay for small sellers like me the best business partner to have. In this fast-changing world
they support sellers like me to play a part in the Circular Economy.”
Albertine R.
eBay Seller, Netherlands
“Partnering up with eBay has helped PUSHAS become one of the largest marketplaces for
sneakers and apparel in Australia. From selling in our bedroom to selling internationally, eBay
has helped us build trust and legitimacy in our brand. Thanks to eBay, we were able to expand
into the US market and grow really quickly.”
Justin T.
eBay Seller, Australia
Seller Testimonials
“My company, Valused, is focused on high quality, second-life auto parts. For these kinds
of products, providing clear quality segmentation to the consumer is essential and eBay
has been very constructive and inventive to build or revise its way to organize the offer.”
Julien D.
eBay Seller, France
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Industry Partnerships
eBay recognizes the importance of maintaining strong,
collaborative relationships with rights owners, their representatives,
trade associations, regulatory agencies and law enforcement
to help enhance eBay’s efforts to provide a safe platform for
consumers. Since 2011, eBay has been a signatory of the European
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the sale of counterfeit
goods that brings together online platforms and rights owners
to actively collaborate in creating a safe online environment for
consumers.
eBay also partners with a number of industry associations, such as
INTA, IACC, Unifab and others that represent rights owners;
“REACT, as an anti-counterfeiting association that represents over 335 brand owners globally, appreciates that eBay is one of
the global leaders in developing tools and best practices to protect intellectual property rights.
REACT has been using eBay’s Verified Rights Owner Program to successfully streamline the process of monitoring and
removal of counterfeit listings from the platform. Our cooperation has resulted in a significant reduction of counterfeit listings
on the platform, and we consider eBay’s firm policy to block repeat infringers as an example for other e-marketplaces.
Furthermore, eBay proactively supported our online to offline enforcement program which resulted in several successful raids
of counterfeited items.”
Ronald Brohm
Testimonial: REACT
Managing Director, REACT
strategizes with them on ways to resolve industry-wide counterfeit
issues; hosts visits to our site to educate rights owners and
industry associations about our efforts to keep consumers safe;
and bi-laterally exchanges information with rights owners to
continually evolve and adapt to the online practices of professional
counterfeiters. 2022 was the third year that eBay sponsored Unifab’s
annual consumer awareness campaign, “Be, Buy, Consume, REAL.
United against fakes and piracy.” In addition, 2022 marked the
sixth year eBay sponsored INTA’s “Unreal Campaign”, which is a
consumer awareness initiative to educate young consumers from
the ages of 14-23 about the importance of trademarks and brands
and the dangers of purchasing counterfeit items.
The BPI is the representative voice of independent labels and major record companies across the UK. As a trade association it
works relentlessly to promote and protect British music and provides a great breadth of services and benefits to its members.
These include activities to prevent and act against the illegal distribution of unlicensed music in digital and physical format.
“The size of the counterfeit and bootleg music market is estimated to be worth millions of pounds in the UK alone, denying
artists, rights holders and retail outlets, and online marketplaces can play a key role in preventing sales displacement. eBay
took our concerns into serious account and deployed technological solutions to prevent the sale of unlicensed music products
on their platform. This led to a remarkable 90% reduction in the number of listings monthly reported by the BPI for copyright
infringement. We appreciate eBay’s investment in protecting our members’ content and their ongoing efforts to fine tune their
detection algorithms.”
Paola Monaldi
Testimonial: BPI
BPI Head of Content Protection
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Product Safety
Product Safety Cont’d
eBay also works closely with a range of regulatory agencies
across the world to promote product safety and protect
consumers from unsafe products. eBay actively enforces our
Product Safety Policy using AI and image detection to proactively
identify potentially unsafe products. eBay’s product safety filter
algorithms blocked 4.8 million listings in 2022. This represents an
important achievement considering the wide variety of new and
used inventory on our platform.
In 2018, eBay committed to additional voluntary measures
aimed at ensuring the safety of products sold through eBay by
signing the EU Product Safety Pledge, which sets out specific
voluntary actions that go beyond what is already established by
EU legislation. This pledge commits us, among other things, to the
following measures:
React within two working days to authorities’
notices made to the companies’ contact points to
remove items offering what could be considered
unsafe products.
Provide a clear way for customers to notify eBay of
unsafe products.
Consult information on recalled and other unsafe
products available on various public databases
and take appropriate action with respect to the
products concerned, when they can be identified.
Provide specific single contact points for market
surveillance authorities for the notifications on
dangerous products and for the facilitation of
communication on product safety issues.
Take measures aimed at preventing the
reappearance of dangerous product listings
already removed.
Provide information and training to sellers
on compliance with relevant product safety
legislation; require sellers to comply with the law;
and provide sellers with links to relevant product
safety legislation.
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In March 2023, eBay signed an extended version of the EU Product
Safety Pledge, called Product Safety Pledge +, under which the
following new commitments will start applying as of June 2023:
Make efforts to complete the identification of
relevant (identical) product listings within three
working days, following either a government notice
or information published in the EU Safety Gate.
Allow access for the online web-crawling tools
operated by national market surveillance authorities
and/or the Commission to identify dangerous
products.
Have in place a risk management plan to identify,
assess, classify and mitigate product safety risks.
Provide assistance on product recalls, such as
by directly informing consumers who bought the
product in question without undue delay from when
the recalled listings have been identified.
Clarify whether the signatory is only acting as an
intermediary or is carrying out any other role such
as economic operator, including information on
who consumers should turn to with product safety
concerns.
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“The International Trademark Association and eBay have been long-standing collaborators in the global anticounterfeiting
battle. eBay representatives have diligently contributed to the work of INTA’s Anticounterfeiting Committee across several
regions. They have also supported the Associations Unreal Campaign, helping educate young consumers around the world on
the harms of counterfeits and the value of brands. Marketplaces are critical players in the anticounterfeiting battle and eBay’s
commitment to fight against counterfeiting is more than evident. INTA looks forward to further cooperation in the years ahead.”
Etienne Sanz de Acedo
Testimonial: International Trademark Association (INTA)
Chief Executive Officer, International Trademark Association (INTA)
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eBay also goes beyond what is required by the pledge as we
generally remove listings reported through our Regulatory Portal
(see “Regulators” section below for more information) within two
hours (vs. the pledge’s requirement of two working days), and
directly notify buyers who have bought from a listing that was
removed by eBay for product safety reasons within the previous
90 days. Moreover, to improve the detection of unsafe products
before they are sold to consumers, and for the possible extension
of the EU pledge, eBay proposed to the EU Commission in 2022
a Pilot Project on product safety by which signatory companies
committed to react to notices from consumer organizations in
two working days if enough information was provided to identify
unsafe products.
In addition, eBay signed the Australian Product Safety Pledge
in 2020 to help safety regulators and online marketplaces work
together to identify product safety risks and trends as well as help
keep consumers and businesses informed about safety. As a
founding signatory of this pledge, eBay is committed to working
collaboratively with authorities to ensure the safety of consumers.
“The MHRA works collaboratively with eBay to remove non-compliant medicines and medical devices from its platform.
These products are not ordinary consumer goods and as such, there are strict controls in place around their sale and supply
to members of the public. There are unquestionable risks involved in using medicines that are not approved by us, and certain
medicines can only be sold through registered pharmacies / on prescription from a healthcare practitioner. eBay is constantly
responsive to our requests to remove non-compliant and potentially harmful products from sale and helps us to protect the
health and safety of purchasers across the UK”.
Lynda Scammell
Testimonial: MHRA - Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency
Head of Borderline Products | Healthcare Quality and Access
Furthermore, our Product Safety Policy provides our users with
educational information on product safety and advises them to
check the manufacturer’s website, and public information on
databases, such as the EU Safety Gate (RAPEX) and the OECD
Global Recalls Portal, to get information on recalled items.
Finally, at an international level, eBay and the Organisation for
Economic Cooperation and Development (“OECD”) have been
working collaboratively in the area of product safety for several
years. This has notably resulted in the development of eBay’s
product safety guidelines, information sharing, and eBay’s
promotion of the OECD GlobalRecalls Portal. eBay has also
supported the OECD international awareness campaign for the
safety of toys sold online and has made valuable contributions
to the development of several OECD product safety reports,
including most recently “The role of online marketplaces in
protecting and empowering consumers”.
“We are eBay’s primary authority partner which means giving regulatory advice to help eBay protect its customers and the
business. Together we have kept the platform safe by recalling faulty goods, blocking algorithm filters and de-listing a variety
of products. By introducing a dedicated enforcement reporting portal, eBay has streamlined product safety referrals, meaning
they can remove offending products within two hours of being reported and swiftly put recalls in place. It’s a really constructive
partnership and eBay’s willingness to take on board our advice and go above and beyond what is legally required is testament
to their commitment to product safety.”
Samantha Cowell
Chris Jolly
Testimonial: Kensington and Chelsea Council Trading Standards
Trading Standards Team Leader
Senior Trading Standards Officer
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“AIFA has been cooperating with eBay to protect consumers by tackling fake and fraudulent medicines for almost 10
years. We work together to evaluate the safety of products that are offered on the platform, and our direct and practical
collaboration with eBay has helped us to achieve significant results. Together, we have targeted unsafe products such as
prescription medicines, fake food supplements and ineffective “miracle therapies”, always removing these items in just a few
hours. This intelligence is also used to strengthen eBay’s filters, which is one of the many added benefits of our cooperation”.
Domenico Di Giorgio, Ph. D.
Testimonial: AIFA - Italian Medicines Agency
Head of Inspection & Certification Department
Law Enforcement
eBay’s Criminal and Regulatory Investigations Team (CRI)
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works to protect eBay’s communities from counterfeits, fraud,
child exploitation and other criminal activities. CRI conducts
investigations into possible misuses of the platform and
proactively refers cases to law enforcement for prosecution.
Through its Partnering with Retailers Offensively Against Crime
and Theft (PROACT) program, eBay collaborates with Retail Loss
Prevention departments in North America seeking assistance
with investigations related to Organized Retail Crime (ORC).
The program allows participants to report theft to eBay for
investigation by CRI.
eBay also maintains a dedicated law enforcement portal to
enable law enforcement officers to submit investigation-related
requests to the eBay platform quickly and securely. During 2022,
eBay received 28,331 subpoenas, warrants and other forms of
requests for user records from law enforcement agencies across
the globe. CRI team members review the requests for legal
sufficiency before processing or rejecting a request. Any user
records produced are done so in accordance with applicable
privacy laws. In response to these requests, eBay produced
29,837 user records.
eBay applauds the US Congress for passage of the INFORM
Consumers Act, which establishes a nationwide framework
for seller identification, verification and disclosure. eBay has
dedicated resources to educate sellers about requirements
under the INFORM Consumers Act. The increased transparency
established by the INFORM Consumers Act will help consumers
shop with more confidence while protecting the privacy of the
smallest sellers.
In previous reports, this was referred to as the Global Asset Protection (GAP) Team.
2
eBay partnered with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and Cisco to achieve the indictment of the biggest counterfeit case in
DOJ’s history related to over $1 billion of fraudulent and counterfeit Cisco networking equipment products. The individual who
was indicted used eBay, other ecommerce platforms and his own website to sell these items. eBay worked closely with Cisco
and law enforcement to identify and shut down fraudulent accounts related to this case. This was a year-long investigation that
ultimately dismantled this illegal operation and brought the perpetrator to justice.
Case Study: Indictment Reached in Biggest Counterfeit Case in DOJ’s
History Related to Fraudulent Cisco Products
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eBay’s PROACT program played a key role in taking down a massive organized retail crime (ORC) operation in New York City
that involved millions of dollars worth of inventory including luxury clothing, goods, gift cards and items from drug stores to
later resell online.
Following a three-year joint investigation conducted by the New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) Grand Larceny Division
and the Office of the Attorney General’s (OAG) Organized Crime Task Force (OCTF) and in partnership with eBay’s PROACT
program, law enforcement seized more than $3.8 million worth of stolen retail goods from this crime ring and 41 individuals
were charged for their roles in this crime ring.
Case Study: New York City Organized Retail Crime Ring Dismantled in
Partnership with PROACT
Through its PROACT program, eBay partnered with law enforcement to take down a large organized retail crime operation that
was based out of northeastern Oklahoma and spanned state lines. This crime ring was estimated to have netted $4.5 million in
profits for the sale of stolen merchandise through various ecommerce sites including eBay. eBay worked closely with State and
Federal prosecutors to identify and remove these illicit accounts.
Following an investigation that began in 2019, 24 individuals were arrested in Tulsa and the surrounding areas as part of
Operation Booster Buster at the beginning of 2022.
Case Study: Operation Booster Buster Dismantles Organized Retail Crime
Ring Based in Oklahoma
Regulators
eBay works directly with regulators around the world to stay
on top of new trends, keep our policies and technology tools
up to date and ensure timely removal of any prohibited items.
These partnerships are decades-long in some cases and have
recently been enhanced through eBay’s Regulatory Portal,
which was officially launched in 2021. This online portal allows
participating authorities to flag and take down listings outside of
the existing consumer-reporting function on the site. Additional
features allow government agencies to contact sellers and
buyers to communicate important information about consumer
safety issues. As of 2022, 235 agencies had registered with
eBay’s Regulatory Portal, and 29,530 listings were removed
following notifications through the portal. eBay’s commitment to
proactively working with regulators is recognized as an industry-
leading practice. We encourage law enforcement authorities and
regulatory agencies to register with our Regulatory Portal and to
work with us to flag and remove problematic listings.
Over the past six years, eBay has worked alongside conservation
nonprofits World Wildlife Fund (WWF), TRAFFIC and the
International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) as well as the broader
tech community to stop illegal wildlife trade through the Coalition
to End Wildlife Trafficking Online. Through this partnership, eBay
has revamped prohibited content policies for wildlife, trained
enforcement teams to better identify endangered species
products on the platform, enhanced automation using key search
terms for products like elephant ivory, educated users about the
issue and how they can help, and shared learnings with industry
peers to amplify impact across online platforms. In 2022, eBay
blocked or removed more than 350,000 listings for endangered
wildlife items, including elephants, pangolins and tigers.
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eBay teamed up with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) for a training event to further educate internal teams on the enforcement
of its Animal Products policy. This training was designed to raise awareness about the issue of wildlife trafficking and the
important role eBay can play in combating this problem.
“eBay proactively addresses illegal wildlife trade on their platform. In November, eBay employees joined WWF for a 24-hour
event to surface violating content and discover new trends on the platform.”
Case Study: eBay Educates Employees on Wildlife Trafficking
Sara Grange
Program Officer, WWF
Despite the fact that the first item to be sold on eBay was a (broken) laser pointer, eBay teamed up with the Australian Radiation
Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) to remind businesses and consumers about the risks presented by these
devices. Laser pointers with a radiant power above 1 milliwatt (mW) are banned from sale in Australia because of their ability to
damage eyesight. As part of this partnership, eBay took additional steps to enforce its Product Safety policy to help stop the
sale of laser pointers with a power output above 1 mW on its marketplace. ARPANSA Chief Radiation Health Scientist Dr. Rick
Tinker said, “We encourage other online sellers and retailers to follow eBay’s example and be more vigilant about selling these
products because we know they can harm children.”
Case Study: Laser Pointer Safety in Our Sights
eBay participated in working-group meetings and symposia with UNESCO and INTERPOL to discuss strategies for improving
the fight against the illicit trafficking of cultural property. eBay also partners with governmental entities and nonprofits such
as Tonawanda Seneca Nation and the OBON Society to remove sacred artifacts from the site, including medicine masks and
yosegaki hinomaru, the “good luck” flags Japanese soldiers carried into battle during WWII.
Case Study: Fighting Against the Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Property
16
eBay actively coordinates with its user community, rights owners,
consumer groups, law enforcement, government entities and
other stakeholders to ensure the safety of its platform. To most
effectively address the constantly evolving threats of counterfeits
and prohibited items, eBay values the regulatory and legal
flexibility to appropriately respond to bad actors. Throughout the
ecommerce ecosystem, each stakeholder must be allowed the
flexibility to address threats based on respective business models.
As policymakers across the globe seek ways to further protect
consumers, rights owners and ecommerce business models, the
following issues should be considered:
Regulatory regimes or technology mandates that are “one
size fits all” can actually serve to limit the tools, resources
and partnerships necessary to combat bad actors, and
they have the potential to stifle legitimate commerce,
particularly for individuals and small businesses.
Policies should leverage the expertise and resources
of rights owners and strive for a balanced approach to
ensure that stakeholders have the best and most relevant
information to combat IP infringement.
Increased resources and more efficient use of those
resources for relevant government agencies and offices will
allow governments across the globe to increase coordination
with stakeholders to jointly address bad actors.
Information-sharing agreements with law enforcement,
structured and unstructured collaboration, and best-
practices sharing among all stakeholders in the ecommerce
ecosystem – from rights owners to online marketplaces –
are essential to detect, remove and prevent bad actors from
conducting criminal activity online.
For over 27 years, eBay has worked to ensure its platform remains a safe and trusted place
for its buyers and sellers. eBay’s commitment to providing a trusted experience for its users
remains core to what the company does every day.
eBay is deeply committed to further
ensuring the safety of its platform and looks
forward to evolving its current capabilities
and partnerships in 2023.
Legal Disclaimer: We are voluntarily providing this transparency report and are not obligated to update the statements in this report if new information becomes available. Data and
corresponding statements made within this report are from the calendar year of 2022 from January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2022. We intend to provide future transparency reports, but
the information presented in the future may be different in substance or presentation. This report is provided on an aggregate basis and reflects actions taken in line with eBay’s policies or
applicable law, based on information received from third parties, eBay’s risk assessments or other signals. This is not intended as a report pursuant to the transparency report obligations set
out in the Digital Services Act.
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