The auction giant has introduced a ‘buyer protection fee’ on every private seller transaction of 75p per item.
Buyers are now also charged 4% of the item price up to £300, and 2% of any portion between £300 and £4,000. Many say this unfairly penalises low-value items – the flat 75p fee pretty much doubles a low-value item.
How do the new eBay fees work?
So, for a £20 item, buyers will pay a 75p flat fee plus a 40p variable fee, so an extra £1.15, plus shipping.
Two £5 items from the same listing, will also have the 75p flat fee added plus the same 40p variable fee (4 per cent of £5 x 2).
For a 99p item, there’s still a 75p fee, plus 3p for the percentage, meaning 78p is added to the 99p listing before postage is added on top.
But a positive is that there aren’t any additional fees above £4,000, meaning there is an effective cap of £86.75.
Why most SHOULDN’T worry that eBay, Etsy, AirBnB etc must now share your sales data with HMRC, a speedy briefing…
Courtesy @itvMLshow pic.twitter.com/ilPw1pCgXw
— Martin Lewis (@MartinSLewis) February 3, 2025
How about business sellers on eBay?
Listings by business sellers do have the buyer protection fee because the sellers already pay fees for each of the items they sell.
The moves come after the online auction giant scrapped fees for private sellers across almost all of its categories, following free fashion selling earlier in 2024.
It comes amid increasing competition from rival sites such as Vinted and means sellers no longer have to pay the final value on items except for cars, motorcycles and other vehicles.
eBay said at the time that the removal of seller fees for fashion in April led to a double-digit increase in listings for popular items such as jeans, shirts, and dresses while keeping items out of landfills.
An email to all customers explained: “We recently changed our fee structure, so it’s now free for private sellers to sell, and there are no barriers for you to list the items buyers will love.
As part of this change, we’re launching Buyer Protection to give buyers more confidence and security when shopping.”
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From February 4, the fee is included in the item price when purchasing from private sellers.
For sellers, funds will be available in eBay balances two days after delivery confirmation, or notification of local collection.
To sweeten this, eBay is adding 24/7 customer support, with a real person by phone at any time of day, or answering chat messages.
