The following describes the terms on which eBay offers you access to our services.
Introduction
Welcome to eBay. By using eBay (including eBay.com and its related sites, services and tools), you agree to the following terms with eBay Inc. and the general principles for the websites of our subsidiaries and international affiliates. If you reside outside of the United States, you are contracting with one of our international eBay companies: In countries within the European Union, your contract is with eBay Europe S.à r.l.; in all other countries, your contract is with eBay International AG. If you have any questions, please refer to our help section.
This Agreement is effective on September 29, 2009, for current users, and upon acceptance for new users. The previous amendment to this User Agreement was effective for all users on June 14, 2009.
Scope
Before you may become a member of eBay, you must read and accept all of the terms in, and linked to, this User Agreement and the eBay Privacy Policy. We strongly recommend that, as you read this User Agreement, you also access and read the linked information. By accepting this User Agreement, you agree that this User Agreement and Privacy Policy will apply whenever you use eBay sites or services, or when you use the tools we make available to interact with eBay sites and services. If you use another eBay site, you agree to accept the User Agreement and Privacy Policy applicable to that site. Some eBay sites, services, and tools may have additional or other terms that we provide to you when you use those sites, services, or tools.
Using eBay
While using eBay sites, services and tools, you will not:
post content or items in an inappropriate category or areas on our sites and services;
use our sites, services, or tools if you are not able to form legally binding contracts, are under the age of 18, or are temporarily or indefinitely suspended from using our sites, services, or tools;
fail to deliver payment for items purchased by you, unless the seller has materially changed the item's description after you bid, a clear typographical error is made, or you cannot authenticate the seller's identity;
fail to deliver items purchased from you, unless the buyer fails to meet the posted terms, or you cannot authenticate the buyer's identity;
manipulate the price of any item or interfere with other users' listings;
circumvent or manipulate our fee structure, the billing process, or fees owed to eBay;
post false, inaccurate, misleading, defamatory, or libelous content (including personal information);
take any action that may undermine the Feedback or ratings systems (such as displaying, importing or exporting Feedback information off of the sites or using it for purposes unrelated to eBay);
transfer your eBay account (including Feedback) and user ID to another party without our consent;
distribute or post spam, unsolicited, or bulk electronic communications, chain letters, or pyramid schemes;
distribute viruses or any other technologies that may harm eBay, or the interests or property of eBay users;
export or re-export any eBay tools except in compliance with the export control laws of any relevant jurisdictions;
copy, modify, or distribute rights or content from the eBay sites, service, or tools or eBay's copyrights and trademarks; or
harvest or otherwise collect information about users, including email addresses, without their consent.
Abusing eBay
eBay and the Community work together to keep our sites and services working properly and the Community safe. Please report problems, offensive content, and policy violations to us.
eBay's Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) program works to ensure that listed items do not infringe upon the copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property rights of third parties. If you believe that your intellectual property rights have been violated, please notify our VeRO team through our Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) Program and we will investigate.
Without limiting other remedies, we may limit, suspend, or terminate our service and user accounts, prohibit access to our sites and their content, services, and tools, delay or remove hosted content, and take technical and legal steps to keep users off the sites if we think that they are creating problems or possible legal liabilities, infringing the intellectual property rights of third parties, or acting inconsistently with the letter or spirit of our policies. We also reserve the right to cancel unconfirmed accounts or accounts that have been inactive for a long time, or to modify or discontinue eBay sites, services, or tools.
Buyer Protection
Buyers and sellers share the responsibility for making sure purchases facilitated by eBay are exciting, rewarding, and hassle-free. We strongly encourage buyers to work with sellers before opening a claim relating to a purchase. Buyers and sellers agree to follow the requirements of the eBay Buyer Protection Policy with respect to claims. eBay Buyer Protection covers only claims filed in accordance with the eBay Buyer Protection Policy, not claims filed with PayPal. We may suspend the eBay Buyer Protection Policy without notice if we suspect abuse or interference with the proper working of the program.
We require eBay sellers to comply with our resolution process. Sellers permit us to make a final decision, in our sole discretion, on any claim that a buyer files with eBay under the eBay Buyer Protection Policy. If we resolve a dispute in the buyer's favor, we will refund the buyer for the cost of the item and the original shipping, and we will require the seller to reimburse us for the refund. Without limiting the foregoing, sellers may not have to pay a reimbursement for an eBay claim if they provide the documentation (for example, delivery confirmation or proof that the item was as described) indicated in the eBay Buyer Protection Policy.
Sellers must have a reimbursement method on file with eBay.
For transactions paid with PayPal, sellers agree to allow us to remove funds from their PayPal accounts to reimburse buyers. Sellers may change this reimbursement method by contacting eBay.
When there are insufficient funds in PayPal accounts, transactions are not paid with PayPal, or when PayPal is not the reimbursement method of a seller, we will require another reimbursement method.
For future claims where the seller is found at fault, we will notify the seller and continue to charge the sellers preferred method for any reimbursements made under the eBay Buyer Protection Policy. Changing a reimbursement method will not affect eBay's use of a payment method on file for other purposes (such as payment of your eBay fees). If sellers do not provide eBay with a valid reimbursement method, we may collect amounts owed using other collection mechanisms, including retaining collection agencies. We may also suspend or restrict sellers from trading on our sites until payment is made.
Fees and Services
Joining eBay and bidding on listed items is free. We do charge fees for using other services, such as listing items. When you list an item or use a service that has a fee, you have an opportunity to review and accept the fees that you will be charged based on our Fees schedule, which we may change from time to time. Changes to that schedule are effective after we provide you with at least 14 days' notice by posting the changes on the eBay site. We may choose to temporarily change the fees for our services for promotional events (for example, free listing days) or new services, and such changes are effective when we post the temporary promotional event or new service on the sites.
Unless otherwise stated, all fees are quoted in U.S. Dollars. You are responsible for paying all fees and applicable taxes associated with our sites and services in a timely manner with a valid payment method. If your payment method fails or your account is past due, we may collect fees owed using other collection mechanisms. (This includes charging other payment methods on file with us, retaining collection agencies and legal counsel, and for accounts over 180 days past due, deducting the amount owed from your PayPal account balance.)
Content
When you give us content, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicensable (through multiple tiers) right to exercise any and all copyright, trademark, publicity, and database rights (but no other rights) you have in the content, in any media known now or in the future.
For the convenience of sellers, we may offer catalogs of stock images, descriptions, and product specifications that are provided by third parties (including eBay users). You may use catalog content solely in connection with your eBay listings during the time your listings are on eBay's sites.
While we try to offer reliable data, we cannot promise that the catalogs will always be accurate and up-to-date, and you agree not to hold our catalog content providers or us responsible for inaccuracies in catalogs. If you choose to include catalog content in your listings, you continue to be fully responsible for your listings and for ensuring that your listings are accurate, do not include misleading information, and comply with this User Agreement and all eBay policies. The catalogs may include copyrighted, trademarked, or other proprietary materials. You agree not to remove any copyright, proprietary, or identification markings included with the catalogs or create any derivative works based on catalog content (other than by including them in your listings).
Limitation of Liability
You will not hold eBay responsible for other users' content, actions, or inactions, items they list or their destruction of allegedly fake items. You acknowledge that we are not a traditional auctioneer. Instead, our sites are venues to allow anyone to offer, sell, and buy just about anything, at anytime, from anywhere, in a variety of pricing formats and locations, such as Stores, fixed price formats, and auction-style formats. We are not involved in the actual transaction between buyers and sellers. While we may help facilitate the resolution of disputes through various programs, we have no control over and do not guarantee the quality, safety, or legality of items advertised, the truth or accuracy of users’ content or listings, the ability of sellers to sell items, the ability of buyers to pay for items, or that a buyer or seller will actually complete a transaction or return an item. For certain categories, particularly Motors and Real Estate, a bid or offer initiates a non-binding transaction representing a buyer’s serious expression of interest in buying the seller’s item.
We do not transfer legal ownership of items from the seller to the buyer, and nothing in this agreement shall modify the governing provisions of California Commercial Code § 2401(2) and Uniform Commercial Code § 2-401(2), unless the buyer and the seller agree otherwise. Further, we cannot guarantee continuous or secure access to our sites, services, or tools, and operation of our sites, services, or tools may be interfered with by numerous factors outside of our control. Accordingly, to the extent legally permitted, we exclude all implied warranties, terms and conditions. We are not liable for any loss of money, goodwill or reputation, or any special, indirect or consequential damages arising, directly or indirectly, out of your use of or your inability to use our sites, services, and tools.
Some jurisdictions do not allow the disclaimer of warranties or exclusion of damages, so such disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you.
Regardless of the previous paragraphs, if we are found to be liable, our liability to you or to any third party is limited to the greater of (a) the total fees (under eBay Fees and Services) you paid to us in the 12 months prior to the action giving rise to the liability, and (b) $100.
Release
If you have a dispute with one or more users, you release us (and our officers, directors, agents, subsidiaries, joint ventures, and employees) from claims, demands, and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown, arising out of or in any way connected with such disputes. If you are a California resident, you waive California Civil Code §1542, which says: "A general release does not extend to claims which the creditor does not know or suspect to exist in his favor at the time of executing the release, which if known by him must have materially affected his settlement with the debtor."
Access and Interference
The sites contain robot exclusion headers. Much of the information on the sites is updated on a real-time basis and is proprietary or is licensed to eBay by our users or third parties. You agree that you will not use any robot, spider, scraper, or other automated means to access the sites for any purpose without our express handwritten permission.
Additionally, you agree that you will not:
take any action that imposes or may impose (in our sole discretion) an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure;
copy, reproduce, modify, create derivative works from, distribute, or publicly display any content (except for your information) from the sites without the prior express written permission of eBay and the appropriate third party, as applicable;
interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the sites, services, or tools, or any activities conducted on or with the sites, services, or tools; or
bypass our robot exclusion headers or other measures we may use to prevent or restrict access to the sites.
Privacy
We do not sell or rent your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes without your explicit consent. We use your information only as described in the eBay Privacy Policy. We view protection of users' privacy as a very important community principle. We store and process your information on computers located in the United States that are protected by physical as well as technological security devices. You can access and modify the information you provide us and choose not to receive certain communications by signing in to your account. We use third parties to verify and certify our privacy principles. For a complete description of how we use and protect your personal information, see the eBay Privacy Policy. If you object to your information being transferred or used in this way please do not use our services.
Indemnity
You will indemnify and hold us (and our officers, directors, agents, subsidiaries, joint ventures, and employees) harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of your breach of this Agreement, or your violation of any law or the rights of a third party.
No Agency
No agency, partnership, joint venture, employee-employer, or franchiser-franchisee relationship is intended or created by this Agreement.
Notices
Except as explicitly stated otherwise, legal notices shall be served on eBay's national registered agent (in the case of eBay) or to the email address you provide to eBay during the registration process (in your case). Notice shall be deemed given 24 hours after email is sent, unless the sending party is notified that the email address is invalid. Alternatively, we may give you legal notice by mail to the address provided during the registration process. In such case, notice shall be deemed given three days after the date of mailing.
Resolution of Disputes
If a dispute arises between you and eBay, our goal is to provide you with a neutral and cost effective means of resolving the dispute quickly. Accordingly, you and eBay agree that we will resolve any claim or controversy at law or equity that arises out of this Agreement or our services (a "Claim") in accordance with one of the subsections below or as we and you otherwise agree in writing. Before resorting to these alternatives, we strongly encourage you to first contact us directly to seek a resolution by going to the Contacting Customer Support help page. We will consider reasonable requests to resolve the dispute through alternative dispute resolution procedures, such as mediation or arbitration, as alternatives to litigation.
Law and Forum for Disputes - This Agreement shall be governed in all respects by the laws of the State of California as they apply to agreements entered into and to be performed entirely within California between California residents, without regard to conflict of law provisions. You agree that any claim or dispute you may have against eBay must be resolved exclusively by a state or federal court located in Santa Clara County, California, except as otherwise agreed by the parties or as described in the Arbitration Option paragraph below. You agree to submit to the personal jurisdiction of the courts located within Santa Clara County, California for the purpose of litigating all such claims or disputes.
Arbitration Option - For any claim (excluding claims for injunctive or other equitable relief) where the total amount of the award sought is less than $10,000, the party requesting relief may elect to resolve the dispute in a cost effective manner through binding non-appearance-based arbitration. In the event a party elects arbitration, they shall initiate such arbitration through an established alternative dispute resolution ("ADR") provider mutually agreed upon by the parties. The ADR provider and the parties must comply with the following rules: (a) the arbitration shall be conducted by telephone, online and/or be solely based on written submissions, the specific manner shall be chosen by the party initiating the arbitration; (b) the arbitration shall not involve any personal appearance by the parties or witnesses unless otherwise mutually agreed by the parties; and (c) any judgment on the award rendered by the arbitrator may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.
Improperly Filed Claims - All claims you bring against eBay must be resolved in accordance with this Resolution of Disputes Section. All claims filed or brought contrary to the Resolution of Disputes Section shall be considered improperly filed. Should you file a claim contrary to the Resolution of Disputes Section, eBay may recover attorneys' fees and costs up to $1000, provided that eBay has notified you in writing of the improperly filed claim, and you have failed to promptly withdraw the claim.
Additional Terms
The following policies, including all policies referenced in them, are part of this Agreement and provide additional terms and conditions related to specific services offered on our sites:
Each of these policies may be changed from time to time. Changes take effect when we post them on the eBay site. When using particular services on our sites, you are subject to any posted policies or rules applicable to services you use through the sites, which may be posted from time to time. All such policies or rules are hereby incorporated into this User Agreement.
General
eBay Inc. is located at 2145 Hamilton Ave., San Jose, CA 95125. Europe S.à r.l. is located at 22-24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg. eBay International AG is located at Helvetiastrasse 15/17, 3005, Bern, Switzerland. If any provision of this Agreement is held to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision shall be struck and the remaining provisions shall be enforced. In our sole discretion, we may assign this Agreement in accordance with the Notices Section. Headings are for reference purposes only and do not limit the scope or extent of such section. Our failure to act with respect to a breach by you or others doesn't waive our right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches. We do not guarantee we will take action against all breaches of this Agreement.
We may amend this Agreement at any time by posting the amended terms on this site. Except as stated elsewhere, all amended terms shall automatically be effective 30 days after they are initially posted. Additionally, we will notify you through the eBay Message Center. This Agreement may not be otherwise amended except in a writing hand signed by you and us. For purposes of this provision, a “writing” doesn't include an email message and a signature doesn't include an electronic signature.
This Agreement sets forth the entire understanding and agreement between us with respect to the subject matter hereof. The following Sections survive any termination of this Agreement: Fees and Services (with respect to fees owed for our services), Release, Content, Liability, Indemnity and Resolution of Disputes.
In accordance with Cal. Civ. Code §1789.3, you may report complaints to the Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs by contacting them in writing at 400 R Street, Sacramento, CA 95814, or by telephone at (800) 952-5210.
Must use Buy It Now and PayPal.
