Today Sees the Start of Protest Action Against eBay in the UK

Today, 14th September 2006, marks the start of a four day protest action against eBay. I’ve discussed the issues behind seller unrest on eBay in a previous AC article HERE .

The protest in the UK is being led by a group calling themselves CORE, standing for Campaign Of Rebuffed Ebayers. Few members are willing to identify themselves fully to the media as they suspect their eBay account listings are being targeted for malicious reports and their postings in the eBay forums censored. Despite this I was determined to find one of the CORE organisers and discover more about the group’s motivation.

It didn’t take me long to follow the clues laid out in eBay forums to find a contact email address and, having explained my interest, I was put in touch with ‘John’, the Administrator of the groups off eBay forum where group policy and plans are discussed and organised.

Having seen inside this forum I can confirm there are more than 160 individual member activists in CORE and, among their number, there are some high volume eBay sellers. A few representatives are also present from North America and elsewhere and it seems likely that future protest plans will be more internationally coordinated.

John sells collectables from his home in Cleveland in north east England and has been an eBay Store owner for over a year. I began by asking him what effect the eBay fee increases will have on him. He replied; “Obviously I will have to pay more of my revenue to eBay now and, to counter this, I will have no choice but pass these costs, at least in part, on to buyers. Ultimately it is always buyers on eBay that will bear the cost of increased fees.”

While obviously not happy at this prospect, John became more animated when I asked if the fees were more important than the decision to remove Store items from most searches done on the site; “Let me put it this way, if you had a high street shop and your landlord put the rent up you’d be upset, yes? But what if he also boarded up your windows so nobody knows you are open or what you are selling?”