eBay Australia Fumbles Fee-Free Selling Launch
eBay has officially launched fee-free C2C selling in Australia but confusing eligibility requirements leave sellers wondering where they stand.
The new fee structure closely mirrors changes rolled out in the UK in 2024 and 2025 which allow smaller, non-business users with under $25,000 in sales to sell without paying any Final Value Fees, while introducing a protection fee on the buyer's side of 4-8%.
When announcing the update back in March, eBay said that Eligibility is determined on a 12 month rolling lookback period and once sellers exceed the $25,000 threshold (which includes shipping and tax from sales across all eBay sites), they'll be required to move into one of eBay Australia's new Pro plans.
Each month, we calculate your total sales on eBay using data from the preceding 12 full calendar months. For example, the calculation in August is based on sales from the previous 1 August – 31 July. We add up your sales across all eBay sites, using the total amount of each sale (including the item price, postage and any applicable tax).
If your total sales is over AU $25,000 and you don't have a Pro plan, we'll notify you on the 20th of the month before upgrading you to a Pro Starter plan from the 1st of the following month. The Pro Starter plan has no monthly cost, but you'll pay transaction fees (final value fees) when your items sell.
If your total sales is AU $25,000 or less and you don't have a Pro plan, you're eligible for free selling.
If your total sales is AU $25,000 or less and you currently have a Pro plan, you'll have the option to cancel your plan and move to free selling. The cancellation takes effect on the 1st of the following month. You'll continue to pay transaction fees until then if your items sell.
But as eBay began officially transitioning accounts to the new model this week, some sellers in the eBay community say they were automatically moved into the Pro plan even though they believed they should have qualified for fee-free selling, revealing general confusion about how the new program actually works.
why did ebay put me as Pro Starter
I stopped all 70 listings today because of this, Till don't understand any of it.
It seems to be the default that they put everyone (or at least most of us) on. You can change it if you'd like to. I changed one of my Ids to the free selling just as an experiment to see what happens. Only have a few things listed on it.
Importantly, it appears sellers will not be able to use third party listings tools in the free selling program and will instead be forced to list directly through the eBay site or app.
Free selling / Pro Starter
So I realise today that I have been pushed automatically onto the Pro plan and cannot cancel or downgrade onto the free selling plan, even though my sales do not exceed $25,000 for the previous year.
So if I want to use an API for listing, such as Sixbit, I now have to pay to EBay $27.45 monthly, in addition to final value fees to EBay, as well as API subscription fees. Why are API use not included in the Pro Starter plan?
This is such an oversight and greedy grab on eBay’s part, that after 25 years selling, I am ready to walk. To introduce this at a time when APIs are pricey with the closing of Inkfrog.
eBay Australia does not have inventory management like it does in overseas sites and removed Turbo Lister, meaning EBay have no interest in helping their loyal sellers, only trying to attract new sellers.
Terrible system with no support to loyal sellers that sell in smaller quantities but still require inventory management.
Other community threads showed general confusion about how the program is supposed to work and if sellers need to opt in or relist items to have it apply.
The rough start follows a familiar pattern - when Buyer Fees were brought to the UK in 2025, eBay suffered an embarrassing failure to launch that pushed the rollout date out weeks.
And if you're wondering why confused sellers are asking each other for help in the community forums instead of talking to eBay - customer service has been increasingly difficult to contact since the company shut down social support options in recent months.
The Australian fee mode update reflects eBay’s global shift toward a marketplace model built around casual C2C volume, while monetizing buyers and professional seller tools separately.
But the rough rollout highlights a familiar problem for eBay: even potentially positive changes can quickly turn into seller frustrations when communication, support and implementation fall short.
