eBay Italy tightens duplicate listings policy
By Ed | May 23rd, 2008 | Category: eBay IT | 1 Comment »Acting in the opposite direction to recently announced policy from the US and Canada, Italy has tightened duplicate listings policy rather than eased it.
In an announcement they have clamped down on duplicate identical listings – the maximum is now 10 – and added that if a seller has duplicate listings that would show up in a search or browse page, only ONE of the identical listings will be shown unless the browser elects to see all results.
They have defined identical duplicate listings as being in the same selling format, with an identical title (
) or in the case or auctions, as above plus having the same price and quantity. Even the most newbie seller will immediately see how to get around those criteria, which makes the policy effectively worthless.
Given the ease of bypassing it, I can only see this as being a preparation for sites being flooded by the likes of Buy.com and other mega-listers that eBay are courting. In which case, great stuff – anything that keeps the giants in check has to be a good move. 
Ed
Listings as of a few minutes ago, 497948 most of which can be bought elsewhere for less.