eBay Australia Makes PayPal Processing Mandatory

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AuctionBytes Blog
News and insight focusing on
ecommerce and the online auction industry
by Ina Steiner, Editor of AuctionBytes.com

April 09, 2008

eBay Australia Makes PayPal Processing Mandatory

By: Ina Steiner

Wed Apr 9 2008 17:02:05

It's official - eBay is requiring that users in Australia use its PayPal payment service on all transactions. While UK sellers are required to offer PayPal on their listings beginning in late April, Australia's new requirements force sellers to use PayPal exclusively, except in pick-up situations.

eBay spokesperson Nichola Sharpe said, "please be mindful that this latest announcement is specifically for eBay in Australia. There are no plans to go to a PayPal-only model for eBay in the US and we haven't announced any other markets at this time."

eBay already limited its buyer protection programs to those transactions in which a buyer uses PayPal to pay for items, including in the US. More on this breaking story in Thursday's AuctionBytes Newsflash newsletter.

Update: Here is link to the Newsflash article with the details. And yes, I specifically asked about credit cards, and Nichola Sharpe of eBay confirmed that sellers may NOT use their merchant credit card accounts (we are still talking about eBay Australia only).

Comments (129) | Permalink

Readers Comments

eBay Australia Makes PayPal Processing Mandatory

by: rts

Wed Apr 9 17:47:51 2008

I'm in the US, but I don't understand. Paypal ''Only''? No checks, MO's, or anything else? Just Paypal? You're not very clear on that.

eBay Australia Makes PayPal Processing Mandatory

by: Henrietta

Wed Apr 9 17:53:05 2008

Looks like our down-under cousins are living on the cutting edge these days. Customer service representative bot Emma came out of the closet yesterday and today we see the monopoly clenching its fist tighter around the money. After the fuss last month when a South Australia man had his Paypal account frozen for suspicious activity when he received an unusually large deposit (he sold his motor scooter and received payment through Paypal) it would not surprise me to see some form of regulation enacted over there. One thing for sure, Aussies are not wimps so expect a lot of 'noise' from that direction. Go FLEAS!

eBay Australia Makes PayPal Processing Mandatory

by: Ina

Wed Apr 9 17:53:08 2008

PayPal only! No checks, no bank deposits, nada. Only exceptions are pick-up and a small number of categories (cars for example).

eBay Australia Makes PayPal Processing Mandatory

by: Henrietta

Wed Apr 9 17:55:53 2008

@rts
Ina said: "Australia's new requirements force sellers to use PayPal EXCLUSIVELY, except in pick-up situations."

eBay Australia Makes PayPal Processing Mandatory

by: rts

Wed Apr 9 19:23:36 2008

Thanks...

I wonder what it's all about?

Before anybody screams ''Monopoly'', I want the facts. There must be a reason for this.

eBay Australia Makes PayPal Processing Mandatory

by: rts

Wed Apr 9 19:58:13 2008

Odd, I just went to ebay.com.au, and I could find no announcements to this fact (the last announcement was about ''Emma''). Then I looked in the discussion boards, I figured they'd be buzzing with people screaming about this. Again, nothing. No topics to that affect. Odd indeed.

eBay Australia Makes PayPal Processing Mandatory

by: JC

Wed Apr 9 20:05:38 2008

You're not looking closely enough:

http://forums.ebay.com.au/thread.jspa?messageID=5027509
78&forumID=18#502750978

http://forums.ebay.com.au/thread.jspa?messageID=603006204&forumID=9#603006204

http://forums.ebay.com.au/thread.jspa?messageID=603006731&forumID=18#603006731

That was about 45 seconds of searching...

eBay Australia Makes PayPal Processing Mandatory

by: Annie

Wed Apr 9 20:19:08 2008

I am a Powerseller from down under - and no we are not taking this lying down. Ebay still have not made an official announcement, but have choosen to talk to the press before talking to their sellers. We have contacted the ACCC and expect comments back from them soon.

eBay Australia Makes PayPal Processing Mandatory

by: Felicity

Wed Apr 9 20:21:28 2008

You're right - there's no announcement on the eBay boards. That's because they haven't made any announcement. The information was leaked to the media, and we all found out about it when it turned up in a few newspapers and online news sites. eBay Australia are apparently going to be making a big announcement in the next few hours.
So at this stage any comments are pure speculation - we don't know if it's for everyone, new sellers only, certain categories etc etc.

eBay Australia Makes PayPal Processing Mandatory

by: Auric

Wed Apr 9 20:23:13 2008

All I have to say is that people that are bashing this post is really NARROW MINDED... Obviously you're seeing the bigger picture and HELL, you probably scammed a few of your transaction partners and now are worried that you won't be able to do it any more. IF that is the case, YOU should TELL ALL other ONLINE PAYMENT METHODS (ie Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, etc) to stop forcing THEIR ONLINE PAYMENT methods on us poor buyers that want to be scammed by idiot/ SCAMMER SELLERS LIKE YOURSELVES.... Shame ON YOU...

eBay Australia Makes PayPal Processing Mandatory

by: a

Wed Apr 9 20:33:20 2008

this makes me very angry

eBay Australia Makes PayPal Processing Mandatory

by: rts

Wed Apr 9 20:35:04 2008

@JC

You are correct, I didn't look too hard, I just looked in the Paypal discussion forum only. It seemed logical that the screaming would be there. When I saw no discussion, I didn't look any further.

eBay Australia Makes PayPal Processing Mandatory

by: Henrietta

Wed Apr 9 21:04:02 2008

@ Annie
For the benefit of us across the pond, what is ACCC?

eBay Australia Makes PayPal Processing Mandatory

by: Ina

Wed Apr 9 21:26:00 2008

I updated this blog post to add a link to tomorrow's article with the details. See the bottom of the original post above.

eBay Australia Makes PayPal Processing Mandatory

by: Darren

Wed Apr 9 21:47:30 2008

Annie - can you please contact me? I was given the story under embargo earlier this week and wrote a piece. I would like to add some seller reactions to it.

Henrietta - ACCC = Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

eBay Australia Makes PayPal Processing Mandatory

by: Darren

Wed Apr 9 21:50:03 2008

Try again with the email link active.

eBay Australia Makes PayPal Processing Mandatory

by: Ruth

Wed Apr 9 22:13:44 2008

The only reason they don't plan on doing this is the U.S. is because we have anti-trust laws that stop what eBay is pulling elsewhere. Tying arrangements are illegal in this country and eBay knows it. What they are doing with Paypal is a violation of the Sherman Act, plain and simple. Forcing ANY seller to accept Paypal as a stipulation of selling on eBay is a perfect example of a tying arrangement. Hopefully, Judge Fogel will rule against eBay shortly and they will have to stop shoving Paypal down everyone's throat. A ruling against eBay will also force them to allow legitimate competition to Paypal, mainly Google checkout. The fact that eBay prohibits Google checkout tells me all I need to know about eBay. It's not about buyer protection on eBay, it about Paypal profits and GREED, period.

eBay Australia Makes PayPal Processing Mandatory

by: Ruth

Wed Apr 9 22:20:07 2008

Auric, you're not seeing the big picture. What about all the sellers who get ripped off by accepting Paypal? There are WAY too many scamming buyers who use loopholes in Paypal's user agreement to steal from sellers. And if this was really about protecting buyers, why would they prohibt ANY legitimate payment service? They are doing it to pad their coffers, no more and no less. It has NOTHING to do with protecting anyone, except maybe those people foolish enough to buy eBay stock.

eBay Australia Makes PayPal Processing Mandatory

by: Dianne

Wed Apr 9 22:24:56 2008

So how does this bode with auctions in the "mature audiences" category? Everything I see on the ebay site indicates that paypal is NOT acceptable for these.

eBay Australia Makes PayPal Processing Mandatory

by: gwilsonb

Wed Apr 9 22:33:51 2008

I agree with the skepticism about the justification given for mandating Paypal payments from June 08 and not allowing bank deposits.

How many people think in all seriousness that it is just because "it's safer" and this decision has nothing to do with improving Ebay's margins on every transaction?

It will be interesting to see if there is any comeback in terms of anti-competition or consumer law in Australia, the UK, or US. Imagine if a retail chain told you that you were only allowed to pay with store cards (basically the equivalent)? Using bank deposits is not an issue about creditworthiness after all as if, say, you'd decided to use a personal cheque.

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