German Regulators Delay eBay's Move to Process All Payments

eBay Germany's new payment processing system, which had been scheduled for June 2012, is now delayed until Jan. 1 2013 because the company needs additional regulatory approval.

The German financial regulator Bafin alerted eBay that its new payment processing system also needs approval from the Luxembourg financial regulator CSSF, as the business unit responsible for the system is located in Luxembourg, according to a report in the telecompaper. eBay also released an Update explaining the delay on the eBay Germany website.

Under the new processing system, as reported by EcommerceBytes in March 2012 and September 2011, eBay would collect payments on behalf of the buyer and only pay the seller after the seller marks the item shipped. In addition, eBay would raise by 2% its sales commission by professional sellers (not private sellers) on transactions. This was to "cover the new administration cost of the payment processing," an eBay spokesperson had said, according to a report by the AIM Group.

Sellers on eBay Germany's discussion board are left scratching their heads as to why the delay was made at the last minute, only about a week before the new system was to be put in place. "I hope this is also duly noted abroad. Huge fanfare, raised for months, and now, just 7 days before the deadline June 12, 2012...everything blown off. One has to wonder if amateurs are on eBay at work?" wrote one seller on an eBay Germany discussion forum thread.

One seller on the German board quoted excerpts from what appeared to be an email from eBay.de to sellers explaining the abruptly announced delay, and stating this was a change from eBay.de's earlier discussions with this authority (Note: translated from German; word order and grammar may be different): "The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) has a few days ago we informed about their legal opinion that eBay for the introduction of the new payment processing a license under the German Payment Services Oversight Act (ZAG) is required. The person responsible for the payment processing business unit of eBay is based in Luxembourg and is subject to the Luxembourg financial supervisory authority CSSF (Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier). According to earlier discussions with the Authority, there was no need to purchase for the proposed new payment for a license. This has now changed with the revised, different interpretation of the law of the BaFin, which we deeply regret."

One Swiss seller had theorized eBay was making the payments processing change in order to get a cut of the payments, as they do in the U.S. with PayPal. He explained that in Europe, "the most common payment method in the daily life is to pay with bank wire, which does not cost anything (nor on payer, nor on receiver side), beside some usually smaller fees to run that bank account."

This seller wondered if "eBay was not ready with the system for the processes (software, banking etc.)...or that "eBay may have realized, waiting up to the last minute, a considerable number of sellers does not accept the TOS; they just don't take it."

About the Author
Julia Wilkinson is the author of "The eBay Price Guide" (No Starch Press, 2006) and "eBay Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks" (Wiley, 2004-6). Her free "Yard Salers" newsletter is at available at YardSalers.net where you will also find her latest ebook, Flip It Again.