eBay is rolling out a new Trust & Safety feature called "Report this Item." Every listing item page will have a "Report this Item" link at the bottom of the page. The link will take users directly to a list of possible reasons why a listing needs to be brought to eBay's attention for listing violations, and will allow users to report the listing to eBay.

The feature is part of eBay's new Consequences and Mitigation policy, which is part of eBay's Marketplace Policy Improvements and New Enforcement Consequences initiative. eBay outlined the initiative in this July 2005 letter from the Vice President of Global Marketplace Policy Management (http://pages.ebay.com/community/chatter/2005july/LetterFromMatt.html).

In a January 2006 announcement on the Consequences and Mitigation policy (http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200601261616502.html), eBay said it relies on its members to report suspicious activity on its 5 million active listings.

While many eBay sellers have said they welcome eBay's actions against scammers and counterfeiters, many have also said they are subject to harassment by other eBay sellers with whom they compete. One eBay seller (who wished to remain anonymous) told AuctionBytes yesterday he believes one of his competitors files complaints with eBay against his listings on a weekly basis.

This seller explained that in order to reach his targeted sales goal, he must have 8 like items listed on eBay at a time. One of eBay's 150+ policies limits a seller to having 10 like items at a time, unless they sell in a Dutch auction format or on eBay Stores (http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-multi.html). This seller said occasionally he will find he has 11, 12 or 13 like items listed due to a mistake with his listing software. He said there had been a tolerance for this in the past, but eBay now seems to have a zero tolerance for this violation. He said he runs 1,000 auctions at a time and pays $8,000/month in fees. If two out of his 1,000 auctions are in violation due to a listing glitch, eBay should treat the violation differently than people who are willfully breaking the regulations, he said.

PESA members report that it has become challenging to comply with eBay's many policies. It issued a statement last week stating that while members welcome eBay's vows to enforce policies, they believe that eBay should improve communications with its top sellers to warn them of violations before imposing penalties. More on PESA's position and eBay's response can be found here: http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m04/i03/s02.

While many of eBay's top sellers have phone access to account managers, low-volume sellers have complained for years that they cannot reach anyone at eBay to appeal a suspension or get anything but canned responses to email inquiries.

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200604031626262.html