eBay Tests AI Product Description Summaries In App - Will Item Not As Described Claims Follow?
eBay continues to insert AI into every aspect of the buying and selling experience with new test that uses eBay.AI to summarize item descriptions for some listings in the eBay app.
Sellers in the eBay community report seeing AI summaries for some items, but not others and are at a loss for how to opt out or control what buyers may be shown when looking at their items.
Description highlights summarized with ebay.ai Can I opt out?
There was a thread here not long ago talking about this, but I can't find it, so I'm just starting a new one.
On the app, some of my listings now have the description highlights summarized with ebay.ai with a paragraph they created, then the link to See Full Description. Not all of my listings have this (maybe just the newer ones??)
Is there a way for me to turn this off or opt out?
The seller provided several screenshot examples of how eBay is currently displaying some of their listings when viewed in the app - though to be clear this appears to be a test that is not currently being shown to all users.
And here's what the actual description for that first item actually looks like on the full listing page on desktop:
The seller went on to explain that while so far they had not seen any incorrect details being added by the AI, they did not like the way it paraphrased some of their disclaimers and they worried AI may mix up details and cause negative buyer experiences.
Of the few I've seen, the info has not been incorrect, however, I do feel it's taken out of context. My disclaimers on all my listings say...
...That is basically what most of the AI is paraphrasing, and I just don't want them to paraphrase.
But my real concern is that I sell many suit sets that have different brands or sizes (ie, Kasper size 6 jacket with Ann Taylor size 8 skirt), and I'm afraid that the AI might summarize with only one of the sizes or brands, which could lead to unhappy buyers if they didn't read the full description.
That's a very real and understandable concern, especially as we've already seen that the eBay.AI summaries being used for the Facebook Marketplace partnership listings may contain incorrect information leading buyers to believe items will be included that are not actually mentioned in the seller-provided description.
Liz Morton
The seller further added that they use the same formatting and disclaimers in all of their listings, but the AI summaries are only showing on some and not others - so they have no idea what may be triggering the use of eBay.AI, no way to identify which listings have it or not at any given moment, and no obvious way to opt out.
Since this appears to be a test, there is not currently any information about it in any eBay help or policy pages that I've been able to find and eBay does not provide any information about whether or not sellers will be protected from not as described claims that stem from eBay.AI providing incorrect or incomplete product info.
This kind of undisclosed AI testing without seller's knowledge or explicit consent and with no way to opt out could end up causing regulatory and legal problems for eBay - especially since their plans to train their AI on user data revealed in their most recent Privacy Policy update have already drawn questions and concerns from regulators in Germany.
Liz Morton
And as companies further insert AI into every facet of the user experience, it also raises new questions about product liability.
In a recent example on Etsy, a buyer left a seller a negative review because the cake they sold was not vegan, but the seller had not advertised it as vegan and in fact stated clearly in the description the cake contained milk and eggs.
The erroneous - and potentially consumer harming - information showing that item in a search for "vegan cake" was entirely produced and published by Etsy's own LLM powered search algorithm.
Liz Morton
The idea of marketplace liability is nothing new of course - since the dawn of the internet and ecommerce, legislators and regulatory agencies across the globe have wrestled with the subject, especially when it comes to sites like Etsy and eBay which historically have leaned on the fact they are "just a venue" for items sold by third party sellers.
While that "just a venue" stance is no longer true for eBay, it hasn't stopped them from forwarding that argument to defend themselves against a lawsuit brought by the US Department of Justice on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency, seeking to hold the company liable for illegal chemicals, pesticides and emissions control cheat devices sold on the platform.
U.S. District Judge Orelia Merchant agreed with eBay, dismissing the case in a ruling stating that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 protects eBay from liability for items sold by 3rd parties on their site.
The DOJ had filed an intent to appeal that ruling last year, but has since dropped the appeal and requested to dismiss the case.
Liz Morton
Walmart is also pursuing a Section 230 defense trying to duck liability for massive organized retail crime, theft and fraud facilitated through their marketplace in a class action lawsuit filed against the company last year.
The victims of this sophisticated triangulation fraud scheme allege Walmart profits from and fails to prevent the digital shoplifting, saying the company is complicit in the crimes as they knowingly recruit and do not properly vet fraudulent sellers from China and have not taken action to stop the fraud even after it was reported to them.
Liz Morton
Corporations have very little incentive to do anything beyond Minimum Viable Compliance box checking exercises when they know they are legally insulated from liability and can afford to keep litigation tied up for years should anyone try to challenge the status quo.
Unfortunately, the current legal and regulatory framework has so far allowed these multi-billion dollar tech giants to avoid accountability for illegal, misleading or consumer-harming activity on their sites.
Section 230 states:
No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.
eBay.AI description summaries pose an interesting question - can companies be held liable when information does not come from another information content provider but rather from LLMs or other technology the company has put in place between sellers and buyers on their platforms?
Etsy, eBay, Amazon, Walmart and other marketplaces can of course be expected to fight tooth and nail to preserve Section 230 as a "get out of liability free card."
If they lose, not only could they be subject to massive regulatory fines and product liability lawsuits, but it could also expose just how much of their publicly reported Gross Merchandise Volume/Sales over the years has been built on fraud, counterfeits and other illegal activity, potentially impacting stock prices and leading to shareholder action or SEC investigations as well.
In fact, eBay's Government Relations team recently visited Illinois lawmakers specifically to lobby against a proposed law which seeks to hold marketplaces as well as sellers responsible for product liability claims and they also continue to lobby at the federal level to keep Section 230 protections in place.
I've requested more information from eBay about this AI summary test and whether sellers are able to opt out - stay tuned for updates!
In the meantime, let us know what you think of eBay.AI description summaries in the comments below!
