More Fees, Less Margin: eBay Raises Final Value Fees in UK & Germany
eBay is increasing final value fees for many sales in the UK and Germany, putting a strain on sellers who are already struggling with ad fee changes and shipping rate hikes eating into profit margins and increasing prices for consumers.
The move comes as part of the January seller update for these regions with the impact of the changes largely based on categories and price thresholds.
UK
Business sellers in the UK will see the per-order fee on items above £10 rise from £0.30 to £0.40, mirroring changes eBay made in the US and Canada in 2024.
We value you as a seller and are always investing in our marketplace to help you run your business smoothly and keep your sales growing. As we make those investments, we sometimes need to adjust certain fees so we can continue delivering products and services that support your success on eBay.
Below, you’ll find details of what’s changing as of 12 February 2026.
Additionally, UK business sellers will see changes to FVF in Business and Industrial and Vehicle Parts and Accessories categories.
Germany
Business sellers in Germany will also see an increase in the fixed per order fee for items over €10, rising from 0.35€ to 0.45€.
The list of categories that will have either a fee increase or threshold decrease is also much longer for German sellers - view the full list here:
eBay has undertaken massive changes in both of these markets over the last few years, dropping final value fees for private, consumer to consumer (C2C) sellers in Germany in 2023 and the UK in 2024 and introducing a Buyer Protection fee and Simple Delivery managed shipping in the UK in 2025 to "remonetize" these transactions.
Along the way business sellers have often felt like they are getting the short end of the stick, shouldering increasing fees, shipping rate hikes, and ad fee burden and being forced to effectively subsidize eBay's "fee-free selling" pitch to bolster their C2C strategy.
To make matters worse, this burden falls disproportionately on honest sellers who register as businesses when their sales activity meets the requirements to do so, while many dishonest sellers will continue to use private accounts (benefiting from the difference in fee structures) even when it is plainly clear that they are operating as a business - with eBay doing very little to police this activity.
Last year, eBay made sweeping changes to Promoted Listings General ad attribution, first in Germany then expanding to UK, EU, and Australia.
Business sellers are more likely to use Promoted Listings ads, so they also bore the brunt of this change which massively increased the amount of sales that incurred ad fees with no additional sales increase or return on investment - just a money grab for eBay.
Liz Morton
Some sellers begrudgingly accepted those ad attribution changes, rationalizing it as preferable to a final value fee increase since using Promoted Listings is technically optional and the seller still has control to set their ad rates.
But eBay's hunger for increasing revenue knows no bounds and accepting a fee increase in one area does not in any way negate the possibility of further increases in other areas in the future - a point that sellers in the US who have used the same rationale for accepting those same attribution changes going into effect this month should absolutely keep in mind.
Liz Morton
As ad fees, final value fees, shipping rates and other costs of doing business continue to rise and eat into profit margins, sellers will likely bake some or all of that increased cost into their product prices.
And since eBay calculates final value and ad fees on the total paid by the buyer including item price, shipping, and tax, they stand to make even more money on the total sale when sellers have to increase prices to cover all the additional costs.
That creates a dangerous spiral pushing total costs to consumers to unsustainable levels that may eventually cause buyers to flee the platform - which eBay can ill afford considering they've now had 14 consecutive quarters with less Active Buyers than in Q1 2018.
Note: eBay changed the definition of GMV and Active Buyers at the end of 2021 and restated both figures going back to 2018 (chart reflects restated figures per eBay's amended reports.)
The January 2026 Seller Update also included the introduction of Promoted Stores Custom campaigns, bringing cost per click advertising to Ambassador affiliate storefronts and eBay Live livestream shopping events for the first time - adding one more way for eBay to ratchet up total take rate and revenue.
Liz Morton
As sellers in the US and Canada wait for the official January 2026 update to drop, will they also see changes to Final Value Fees? Stay tuned for updates!
