A report that surfaced yesterday that eBay had put restrictions on the number of emails that a user could send using the eBay email system proved to be true, although the exact details were wrong. eBay is now limiting members with feedback points to 100 messages per day, and members with zero feedback points to 5 messages per day.

According to eBay spokesperson, Kevin Pursglove, this system has been in place, with some modifications, for the last 6 to 9 months "This only pertains to the Contact an eBay Member form and does not cover transactional communication between users." Said Pursglove.

Last February, eBay implemented a policy restricting access to members' email addresses, except for the two parties directly involved in a transaction. Members not involved in a transaction with another member are unable to access that party's address, and must fill out a form that will be forwarded to that member by eBay itself. The company had claimed that the policy was an effort to cut down on spamming and email harvesting of eBay members, although the email includes a note that warns users that solicitations to buy or sell items outside of eBay violate eBay rules.

At the time the new policy was announced, there were no mentions of limitations on the number of contacts that members could make with each other.