eBay plays down strike by sellers

eBay has said it does not expect a proposed strike by some of its sellers to cause any major disruption on Tuesday. As revealed by Web User last Thursday, a group of eBay sellers are threatening to boycott the auction site tomorrow in protest at changes made to the eBay Shops service. On 19 July, eBay introduced changes to eBay.co.uk Shop fees and Shop item visibility because it said it needed to ensure "the vibrancy of the eBay.co.uk marketplace via the continued success and profitability of our sellers, and our buyers’ ability to easily find what they are searching for on the site." Some Shop sellers believe the changes will have a negative effect on the Shop service and have proposed a strike for Tuesday 15 August. An eBay Community group called "Fee Protest Group for Ebay Sellers and Buyers" has 459 members. However, eBay has played down the strike. In a statement the auction site said: "The changes only affect those sellers who have shops on eBay.co.uk and we do not anticipate that this shop owner protest will disrupt the buying and selling activity of the vast majority of our more than 15 million customers." "We consulted with a number of both buyers and sellers prior to the announcements being made – and the changes were clearly communicated on the eBay website and via email/phone communication to all affected sellers; however, a small but vocal group of our eBay.co.uk shop owners are dissatisfied with these changes which they believe may affect their businesses on eBay." As well as the strike, more than a thousand eBayers have signed a petition calling for Google to launch a rival auction site. It has now attracted more than 1217 signatures.

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