eBay Canada Payments Terms Of Use Update September 2025
eBay Canada has posted an update to their Payments Terms of Use to bring the company into compliance with the Canadian Retail Payment Activities Act.
The update went into effect August 8, 2025 for accounts created on or after that date and September 8, 2025 for existing sellers.
An announcement in the eBay Canada community forum gave a synopsis of the chanages:
At eBay, we’re committed to making our policies clear and our services easy to use. We wanted to let you know that we’re updating our Payments Terms of Use, effective from September 8, 2025.
We’re revising the Payments Terms of Use to better describe the payment services we provide to you. As part of this revision, we have added clarification about the Canadian Retail Payment Activities Act (RPAA) and the fact that we hold your funds in trust in safeguarded accounts.
If you do not agree to proposed changes, you may terminate these Payments Terms of Use, pursuant to Section 12 (“Term, Termination”), at any time before September 8, 2025.
As always, sellers are encouraged to read the entire updated terms carefully, but Value Added Resource has you covered with a side by side comparison highlighting some key changes.
Disclaimer: comparisons are made using both automated and manual methods and are provided for informational purposes only - no warranty of completeness or accuracy is expressed or implied and users are advised to do their own due diligence.
The only part of the Payment Terms of Use for Canada that has change is the addition of this section on the RPAA Trust Arrangement.
- RPAA Trust Arrangement
Definitions
"Beneficiary" means (i) you, (ii) any other end-user (within the meaning of the RPAA), in each case from whom, or for whom, ECCA receives and holds funds where such funds are transferred to ECCA with the intention that they be held in trust and (iii) any income beneficiary designated under the Declaration of Trust;
"Client Funds" means your funds that ECCA receives and holds in accordance with these Payments Terms of Use;
"Declaration of Trust" means the declaration of trust entered into between ECCA, as initial settlor, and the Trustee, as such declaration of trust may be amended, modified, supplemented and replaced from time to time;
"ECCA Trust" means the trust established by the Declaration of Trust to hold Trust Property in trust for the benefit of the Beneficiaries;
"Financial Institution" means a Canadian regulated entity referred to in one of paragraphs 9(a) to (d) or (f) to (h) of the RPAA;
"Income" means any interest or other investment income or earnings that may be earned on the Client Funds held in a Trust Account;
"In-Transit" means the period commencing at the point in time ECCA receives an instruction to immediately transfer or withdraw funds to or from an account, including the Trust Account, until the point in time at which such transfer or withdrawal is complete;
"RPAA" means the Retail Payment Activities Act (Canada);
"Trust Account" means a segregated omnibus trust account maintained by and in the name of the Trustee as trustee on behalf of the Beneficiaries at a Financial Institution;
"Trustee" means the person or entity appointed by ECCA pursuant to the Declaration of Trust as trustee of the ECCA Trust and any successor or replacement trustee;
"Trust Property" means (i) all Client Funds, and (ii) any other property held in trust pursuant to the Declaration of Trust.
Trust Arrangement; Safeguarding of Funds
ECCA has established the ECCA Trust for purposes of holding and safeguarding end-user funds in trust, including Client Funds. By using the Payment Services, you intend for your Client Funds to be held in the ECCA Trust in trust for your benefit and ECCA agrees to hold your Client Funds in the ECCA Trust, in trust, in accordance with these Payments Terms of Use and the Declaration of Trust.
ECCA has been appointed as the initial Trustee of the ECCA Trust. You acknowledge that ECCA has the right to replace the Trustee with one or more successor Trustees at any time, in each case, in its sole discretion, and, except where prohibited by applicable law, without prior notice to or consent from you.
Once your Client Funds are received by ECCA and have cleared and settled and all applicable hold periods have expired, your Client Funds will be deposited and held in the ECCA Trust, in trust, by the Trustee in one or more Trust Accounts with a Financial Institution designated by the Trustee in its sole discretion.
The Trustee will deposit and hold your Client Funds in such Trust Account separate and apart from the Trustee’s own property and ECCA’s property. The Trustee will record the Client Funds beneficially owned by you in the ledger maintained by the Trustee for this purpose. Neither ECCA nor the Trustee may use your Client Funds in the conduct of its business. Neither ECCA nor the Trustee may loan, hypothecate, pledge, or otherwise encumber your Client Funds.
Until your funds are received by ECCA and have cleared and settled and all applicable hold periods have expired, your funds are In-Transit. In-Transit funds are not held in trust by the Trustee.
Subject to any payment instructions you provide to ECCA, you authorize ECCA and the Trustee to: (a) transfer your Client Funds to and from Trust Accounts, and to and from ECCA settlement accounts in its discretion without notice to you; and (b) in connection with such transfers to submit instructions and disclose your personal information (including electronic transaction information) to: (i) the Financial Institutions; (ii) third party service providers; and (iii) ECCA and/or the Trustee, as applicable.
Funds that are withdrawn from the Trust Account will become In-Transit funds and will no longer be Trust Property.
You acknowledge and agree that:
ECCA is not a bank or a Financial Institution and is not itself a Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation member institution;
ECCA is not a professional trustee and funds held in a Trust Account are not eligible for Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation insurance protection at the beneficiary level; and
funds In-Transit are not Trust Property, are not held in trust and are not held in a Trust Account.
You also acknowledge and agree that any interest or other investment income or earnings that may be earned on the Client Funds held in a Trust Account ("Interest") are owned by ECCA and do not form part of the Trust Property.
You hereby assign, transfer and convey over to ECCA any and all rights to such Interest and acknowledge and agree that you have received good and sufficient consideration (with nominal value) for such assignment. Neither the ECCA nor the Trustee will have any duty to invest the Client Funds other than the obligation to deposit the Client Funds into one or more Trust Accounts in accordance with section 3(b).
Some sellers raised an eyebrow at the language indicated eBay will be earning interest on the funds held in trust but that's not actually new - they've explicitly admitted to earning interest on funds in the Payments Terms of Use since October 2023.
Liz Morton
This new section appears to simply be eBay preparing for upcoming requirements for when the compliance period for the RPAA begins.
Fintech Team|November 26, 2024Share:
Cutting through the legalese - this update will likely have very little impact to the day to day experience of either buyers or sellers on the platform and is mostly a box checking compliance exercise.
