eBay say the reason for the policy change is that the European Court of Justice has found that the sale of perfume testers and smell-a-like perfumes that are compared to a well known brand may infringe third party trademark rights.

This change will make it tricky for sellers of smell-a-like products, it’s going to be difficult to describe a scent without being able to make a comparison.

Unusually I find myself sympathising with the brand owners in this instance, they’ve invested in marketing and branding and it must be infuriating to see companies knocking out cheap copies. However if brands continue to bully sellers who attempt to sell genuine branded products online they can hardly complain if sellers decide to branch out into smell-a-like alternatives.

If you spot the adplacement on Irish listings let us know, it doesn’t appear to be there yet but doubtless it won’t be pleasing our Irish readers regardless of how it fits with the eBay of 2010.

1. Beginning this week, there will be a limit of 100 live listings at any one time

• for UK and Irish registered sellers with feedback lower than 25, and
• for all overseas-registered private sellers listing on eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie.

Multiple items on a single listing will all count separately towards this total, so that’s not a sneaky way around the limit either.

Any private seller listing in quantity will be reviewed by Customer Support, and may be required to register as a business, or may be blocked from selling completely. We’ve seen a number of high-volume private sellers being required to register as businesses already.

Sellers registered on eBay.com are bound by the International Trading Policy, which now requires high volume sellers actively listing on European sites to be registered as business sellers. Penalties for breaching the ITP include demotion in search and being blocked from listing on European sites altogether.

2. From June 2010, free listings for all private sellers listing on eBay UK will be limited to 100 per month. Any listings placed in excess of this limit will be charged “an insertion fee”. There’s currently no published detail of whether this insertion fee will be the normal one quoted in eBay’s fee schedule, or whether this will be reconsidered between now and June.

For those who are are thinking this might just be too good to be true, the announcement went live at 2.36pm UK time, well after the 12 noon cut-off for April fools

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They’re also live for most Home and Garden categories on UK and Germany (the following categories will not have MVLs available: Kitchen > Small Appliances; Major Appliances; Cleaning, Laundry & Vacuuming; Clocks; DIY Tools; Garden & Plants).

If you list through the SYI form or SMP in a category where MVLs are available, you’ll now be offered the option to list with variants. Turbo Lister hasn’t yet been updated, but that should be coming shortly. Updated to add: Now available via Turbo Lister too.

eBay are keen to point out the advantages of listing with MVLs: lower insertion fees, saved time and more visibility; “as buyers start purchasing from your multi-quantity listings, your listings can appear higher in Best Match search results.” It’s certainly a feature that sellers have been requesting for years, though watching buyer reactions is going to be interesting; I’d like to see some proactive marketing of this new feature to buyers, otherwise for many of them, it’ll be too easy to miss.

If you’re using MVLs on your listings – or buying from them – let us know how you’re getting on in the comments.

This kind of advertising – disguising it as site functionality in the hope of “accidental” clicks – shows a disregard for site users that beggars belief even coming from eBay. I don’t know how long eBay.ie has had this advertising, but I sincerely hope it doesn’t spread to any other eBay sites.

The My eBay Classic will cease to exist on eBay UK on the 9th March, and the New My eBay will become default on eBay Ireland on the 2nd March. The old search options will disappear at some point in April this year.

According to eBay 98% of users are now using the new search experience so the removal of the opt out to the old search should make little difference to sales. Although many sellers have stated they prefer the old search experience in reality those that matter – your buyers – are probably already using new search and are unaware there’s even an option to opt out.

When the new My eBay was introduced as a Beta in August last year it was ok for buyers but quite frankly useless for sellers. Since then it has undergone numerous improvements and I’ve been using it regularly since before Christmas.

It’ll take a few days to become accustomed to where the new options are hidden (Hint: Most options are now menu driven and hovering over the “Account” tab reveals most navigation options). Once you start using the new My eBay it’s easy enough, although I increasingly use SMP for more and more functions, in particular invoicing, shipping, and leaving feedback.

I’d recommend if you’ve not already opted in to the new My eBay you do so immediately and start becoming accustomed to it and customising it to your preferences rather than starting work on Monday the 9th in an alien environment.

The announcement about changes in the VAT rate was made in October, so eBay Ireland have had even longer to come up with a more useful solution than the week that Alastair Darling gave eBay UK. Irish sellers will no doubt draw their own conclusions from the timing of this announcement, one working day before the VAT change goes live: could it have only been prompted by the change in the UK rate?

One small improvement on the Irish announcement: the patronising tag line

With strong competition and early discounting coming from the high street this Christmas season we know buyers are now, more than ever, being attracted to great value bargains.

which concluded the British one has been omitted.

As already announced for eBay Australia, the new system will allow sellers to request that buyers edit feedback within 30 days of it being left. Buyers will only be able to revise feedback “upwards” – i.e. a positive cannot be changed to a negative or neutral – and sellers cannot request that buyers edit positive feedback. Buyers will be able to edit the rating, the DSR scores and the comment they left.

Sellers will be able to request 5 edits per 1,000 feedbacks received, though eBay have said that this limit may be reconsidered: when it was announced for the Australian site, many sellers wondered what would be the position for buyers who’d left multiple non-positive feedbacks for combined transactions, so it would be good to see this addressed in the near future.

There’s more detail on exactly how the system will work in the FAQs.

eBay UK will also launch the new Resolution Centre at the end of October: this replaces the current Dispute Console, and just the change of name alone should make trading on eBay a more pleasant experience. There’s not much detail in the announcement of exactly what will be changing, but one welcome addition should be “a separate flow for buyers and sellers to mutually agree to cancel a transaction”: seeing this process made simpler and less antagonistic should be good news for buyers *and* sellers.

User Agreement

The two main changes are that

• if your eBay seller fees are more than 180 days overdue, eBay may take them from your PayPal account, and
• sellers are explicitly made responsible for checking the accuracy of pre-filled item information, stock photography and other catalogue services supplied by eBay.

Privacy Policy

• eBay can share your information within the eBay group, e.g. with PayPal or Skype, and
• with law enforcement agencies in the case of suspected fraudulent and malicious activity.
• A new “No Spam, Spyware or Spoofing” section explicitly forbids the adding of “other eBay users, even a user who has purchased an item from you, to your mailing list (email or physical mail) without their express consent”.
• A new “Marketing” section gives users the ability to opt out of targetted marketing on the site. As eBay were running user tests last month which included looking at reactions to adverts and paid-for services, the more cynical among us might wonder if this heralds yet more third-party ads on the site.

If you’re happy with the new agreements, you need do nothing; if you’re not, you’re invited to close your account.