EBAY Australia sellers will no longer be forced to offer PayPal as a payment mechanism following the intervention of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC).
Two years ago, eBay made two significant moves -- it tried to mandate that sellers offer PayPal and pushed for PayPal to be the only electronic payment platform on ebay.com.au.
The second proposition drew the ire of both buyers, sellers, the ACCC and even the Reserve Bank but the first idea went through largely unchallenged.
Since then the ACCC has been investigating complaints that eBay may have engaged in conduct that could contravene the Trade Practices Act by forcing sellers to offer PayPal, its subsidiary.
"We've been looking at that requirement where eBay said sellers must offer PayPal as one of the payment methods. We've had discussions with senior people at eBay and they have agreed to drop this," ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said.
Today, eBay announced that sellers can choose at least one of three payment methods -- PayPal, Paymate and merchant credit cards -- from July 14.
There will be no change to other forms of payment currently allowed such as cash on delivery.
The competition regulator said eBay was not out of the woods yet and that the case would be reviewed in 12 months.
"After a two-year investigation we think this has cured the problem. But we're not done yet ... we will put this in the to-be-reviewed basket," Mr Samuel said.
He said eBay made the changes as it realised it could have potentially breached the Trade Practices Act.
"This is a win for both buyers and sellers as it gives them choice and flexibility of payment methods."
eBay plans to make other changes to its website.
On July 8, it will introduce a local classifieds listing format for individual sellers, and a new basic store fee listing for books and music.
People can list their products for free then pay a standard final sales fee of 7.9 per cent, capped at $49.95. This will be applicable to items that are collected in person such as whitegoods or furniture.
The fee for movies and book listings will drop to 5 cents from 40c, with sellers having to pay up to 9.9 per cent on the final sale value -- currently set at 7.9 per cent.
