eBay is expanding its recent practice of running ads on sellers' item description pages, previously off-limits to advertising since sellers pay insertion fees. eBay has been running such ads in Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, the UK and Australia, and on Friday, announced it would expand the practice in Australia in the Sport, Electronics, Computers, Toys, Motors, and Home categories.

eBay Australia stated in Friday's announcement that it would "aim to place advertisements that complement the category and sellers' listings. For example links to home and contents insurance offers in the Home category."

eBay Australia had initially run such ads without informing sellers, and placed them directly below the "Place Bid" button. It moved the ad placement and issued an apology to sellers.

In the UK, eBay is testing the ads in three categories - Musical Instruments, MP3 Players, and Home Audio/HiFi.