eBay announced what it calls a major feature enhancement to its eBay Payment service. The new Seller Payment Protection Plan relieves sellers of liability in the event of credit card or checking account fraud when specific guidelines are followed. The announcement reads, "Sellers will not be held liable for chargebacks due to fraudulent use of credit cards or false claims of non-shipment if you follow the Chargeback Protection rules," which it goes on to list. Many auction sellers have become disillusioned with online payment services like PayPal and eBay's Billpoint service as they realize that buyers using credit cards can "chargeback" items if they are unhappy with the purchase.

eBay's new seller protection plan only applies to transactions involving a buyer with a U.S.-issued credit card and a U.S. shipping address that matches the credit card billing address. For full details, view http://pages.ebay.com/help/sellerguide/safeseller.html.