“Our job is to get them (third-party sellers) sales,and provide a seamless customer experience
for our customers, but we’ll never enter into that arena of competing. It’s very tempting
sometimes to do that, but we’ve started off with that as our vision and we will be keeping that
into the future”
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As the marketplace model continues to evolve in Australia, new entrants will need to balance
their desire to build their own product lines, against third-party sellers preferences to be able to
compete fairly on a platform.
27. What information are third-party sellers required to provide to customers
about the product for sale, including in relation to quality or price?
eBay requires that all sellers on its platform provide the following information to consumers in
their listings: title, category, condition, photo, certain required item specifics , item description,
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selling format (auction style or fixed price), price (for auction style listings a ‘starting price’, and
for fixed price formats a ‘buy it now’ price), quantity, payment options, postage options, and the
item location. The information that sellers are required to provide is set out as part of the listing
creation process. Listings that do not contain all of the required information cannot be uploaded.
There are also some policies which require sellers to include certain information in their item
description. For example, eBay’s Alcohol policy requires sellers to display their license number
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and a disclosure pertaining to the age and location of the consumer, in their listing.
As the eBay marketplace is based on listings and not on products, it is not technically feasible
for our systems to provide price assessments without determining exactly what item a given
listing was offering, its quality and the quantity being offered.
We have noted above the steps eBay took during the COVID-19 period in 2020 to address
potential consumer harm arising from price gouging of essential items. We have also taken
steps to address the resale of event tickets at inflated prices through the onboarding of
regulatory authorities onto the eBay Regulatory Portal to accelerate removal of listings that are
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in breach of our policies.
28. What information do app marketplaces provide customers about the product
or sale, including in relation to quality or price?
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The Victorian Department of Jobs Precincts and Regions (responsible for the Major Events Act 2009) has been onboarded as a
reporting entity to eBay Regulatory Portal.
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https://www.ebay.com.au/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-items/alcohol-policy?id=4274&st=3&pos=1&query=Alcohol%20policy&i
ntent=alcohol%20policy&lucenceai=lucenceai&docId=HELP1178
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Item specifics are attributes, such as brand, make, model, size, colour and style, that sellers can add to their listings. Item
specifics match with the filters that consumers use on the eBay website and it allows sellers’ inventory to be more easily found. eBay
mandates some item specifics (“Required Item Specifics”) and these vary depending on the category the item is being listed in. For
example, the Required Item Specifics for an item listed in the Patio & Garden Tables category would be “Item Width” and “Item
Height”.
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https://insideretail.com.au/e-commerce/5-e-commerce-experts-weigh-in-on-the-acccs-marketplace-inquiry-202108