Inaccurate Automated Country of Origin Data Creates Chaos for eBay Sellers

Sellers say eBay is automatically adding Country of Origin information to their listings, raising alarms about what can happen if they get it wrong.

Country of Origin (also sometimes called Country of Manufacture or "made in" country) is an important piece of data often required for international shipments to properly complete forms and assess any customs, duties or tariffs that may be due.

Last year, eBay began automatically filling in the Country of Origin item specific and shipping information in certain categories in the UK and other markets, telling sellers items without those fields filled in may not be eligible to ship to the US using the Global Shipping Programme.

eBay UK Automates Country Of Origin Data, Helping Sellers Avoid US Blocks In Global Shipping Programme

New eBay UK tool automates Country of Origin entry to help keep more listings eligible for US import through Global Shipping Programme.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton

Here's how eBay described automated CoO for the UK:

How it works
Where trusted data was available, we’ve already added COO information to your listings. Since you know your items best, we encourage you to add COO details directly in the Country/Region of Manufacture field — your entry will always override any eBay selection.

You may not see COO on all your listings right away, as updates are rolling out gradually. This process will also apply to new listings where data is available.

Now, the automation is rolling out to the US market as well, but sellers say eBay is often inputting incorrect information, raising concerns about item not described claims and adding more work as they have to go back and "fix" what eBay has broken.

One seller in the eBay community forum says over 900 of their listings were changed to China in error.

Ebay has changed over 900 listings of mine to the country of orgin being China. They are mfg in USA!

I have several train mfg that are still being produced in the USA- since the 40's. Ebay in all their wisdom marked them all as being made in China. How do I rectify this?

One seller who responded, was concerned that they might lose potential sales due to the incorrect information eBay has added to their listings.

It has to due with reciprocal tariffs. eBay took the liberty of changing all sellers listings country of origin of China so they would not see a huge drop in international sales. This just happened in the lase couple days.

I sell used car parts, mostly Honda and Toyota parts from 70's & 80's.
For example: I have used Toyota distributor, made in Japan 40yrs ago, it has a newer cap & rotor probably made in China and has been in the US for 40yrs. eBay just changed to country of origin to China. This morning I had a potential buyer contact me about the change, wondering if I was mis-representing used OEM parts for Chinese made aftermarket parts.

I tried the bulk listing tool, but it was cumbersome to make the change and went into each listing manually to verify.

Others who haven't had eBay automatically fill in the information yet are asking if that may be a reason why they've seen a drop in international sales - which is very likely, especially if they use eBay International Shipping.

Is this new 'Country of Origin' thing why my international sales have fallen off a cliff???

Just a few days ago I realized I haven't had many international sales in the past month or so. -They used to make up at least 25% of my sales, with the majority being Chinese, and using freight forwarders, but some other countries and EIS as well.

Then today I created a new listing and was just about to post it, when I spied THIS, maybe 3/4 of the way down the creation page:

Some sellers worry that in cases where eBay has filled United States in for them, it could pose problems even on domestic sales as some buyers may file item not as described claims if they realize it was not actually made in the USA.

If a domestic buyer purchases something from you because they think it was made in the USA (because eBay filled that in for you, because you didn't care) ... then if they receive it and realize it was made in some other country -BAM, there's the INAD...

The practice could also cause regulatory and compliance problems as the FTC has recently been cracking down on false Made In USA claims.

Complying with the Made in USA Standard

Do you promote your products as “Made in the USA”? Under the law, some products must disclose U.S. content. For others, manufacturers and marketers who choose to make claims about the amount of U.S. content need to know about the FTC’s Made in USA Labeling Rule and Enforcement Policy Statement on U.S. Origin Claims. Is your company up on what’s required?

Federal Trade CommissionStephanie T. Nguyen, Chief Technologist

And others questioned whether incorrect Country of Origin automatically entered by eBay's AI could cause their items to be rejected when they go through authentication.

The problem for me is that when eBay is auto-populating country of origin based on an ai-guess this may be fine as far as satisfying international shipping requirements...but if the same item sells domestically though AG the authenticator is likely to fail it if the country of origin is incorrect.

I can not risk shipping out a bunch of items with incorrect COAs that eBay stuck in there for me. The only thing I can think to do at this point is un-enroll from eBay international shipping and hope that will allow me to clear all those bogus COA fields that were automatically filled out.

Has eBay automatically filled in incorrect Country of Origin data for your listings? Let us know in the comments below!