eBay UK has launched a fees experiment dressed up as a promotion for sellers.

In their brief announcement’s linked terms and conditions the devil is in the detail.

The promotion is for multiple item listings, and the announcement hammers home and beats sellers up about the need for identical items within the listing, only choice of colour is permitted - no other choice factors are allowed. Why this aggression is need I’m not sure, such restrictions have always been the policy on eBay UK. Perhaps it’s because of the increasing in-forum “noise” from sellers wanting the same choice option as the USA site?

The policy hammer came down this week on several “fringe” categories with a long announcement from the gang in Belgium. It seems their parliament is determined they will not be as liberal as neighbouring Holland.

Top of the list is this years number one target for eBay worldwide - Weapons
The announcement also dealt with erotic accessories and “test Euros”.
However the most controversial part of the announcement deals with non-prescription medicines.

This is going to wreak havoc with many sellers, and I’m sure there will be many questionable policy slaps in the area of herbs and medical aids (therapeutic herbs are a big niche on eBay, as are things like pain relieving creams, bandages and the like) with many dolphins getting caught in a net that appears to be not of eBay’s making.

It must have been one heck of a siesta in Spain this summer. The Spanish site have just announced that from 24 September, their PowerSellers will be eligible for 20% FVF discounts if they maintain minimum DSRs of 4.5 across all scores.

Last month, I blogged about the reported disparity in national average DSRs between sites, and posted a special report about the exceptionally low national average in Spain.

The new Spanish announcement about PowerSeller discounts contains one interesting and very worrying phrase -