eBay issued a warning to sellers in the UK and Australia this week about duplicate listings. The marketplace said it would reduce search visibility for sellers who violate its Duplicate Listings policy.
Starting in July, eBay will reduce listing visibility in Best Match for sellers who “pollute” the eBay marketplace with duplicate listings. “If a seller violates the duplicate listings policy, then all the listings from that seller – including those across linked accounts – will have reduced visibility,” eBay said. The visibility reduction will last until the duplicate listings are removed.
eBay said that while the vast majority of its members adhere to its policies, “when listings have misleading information or give some sellers an unfair advantage over other sellers, we take action.”
eBay.com introduced the same policy in the US in July – sellers discussed the ramifications on the EcommerceBytes Blog.
Listings are considered duplicates if they’re for items that have no significant difference between them, or if they appear to be for the same item in search results. eBay Australia’s Duplicate Listing policy can be found here.
See more information on the eBay UK and the eBay Australia announcement boards.