eBay UK Tweaks Buyer Protection Fee, Private Seller Payouts Ahead Of Q2 Results
eBay UK is making changes to their Buyer Protection Fee calculation and private seller payout timing ahead of Q2 2025 earnings report, according to a community forum post by UK General Manager Eve Williams today.
First, the Buyer Protection Fee is being tweaked with updates that will lower costs particularly for lower value items under £20.
eBay's first time introduction of Buyer Fees on items sold by private sellers in the UK in February got off to a rocky start with an initial failure to launch and much confusion about how exactly the fee was being calculated.
Liz Morton
Since that time, eBay has supposedly been calculating the Buyer Protection fee using the following formula: a flat fee of up to £0.75 per item plus 4% of the item price up to £300 and then 2% on any portion of the item price from £300 to £4,000 with no additional fee on any portion of the item price over £4,000.
Starting July 17, 2025, the Buyer Protection Fee will instead be calculated as:
- A flat fee of up to £0.10 per item, and
- 7% of the item price up to £20, and
- 4% of any portion of the item price from £20 to £300, and
- 2% of any portion of the item price from £300 to £4,000
Any portion of the item price above £4,000 will still not incur any additional fees.
eBay will automatically make the proper fee adjustments on Buy It Now listings over the next 24 hours but any Active Offers or Auctions that were started before the 17th will still use the previous fee calculation.
Just as an example of the difference this change will make: a £10 item under the previous Buyer Fee structure would have incurred a fee of £1.15 (£10 x 4% = £0.40 plus £0.75) and under the new structure, that same item will only have an £0.80 fee (£10 x 7% = £0.70 plus £0.10).
Items over £20 will still see slightly less overall fees with the reduction of the flat rate amount but not as much as it might seem at first glance due to the new tiers in the variable fee structure.
For example, the new calculation for a £25 item would be:
£20 x 7% = £1.40
£5 x 4% = £0.20
Plus £0.10 fixed fee for a total of £1.70
The previous calculation would have been £25 x 4% (£1.00) plus £0.75 for a total of £1.75 - meaning the newly added tier results in only a £0.05 total fee savings compared to the old model in this scenario.
So, this change is clearly aimed at having the most impact on lower value items, raising questions about whether eBay may have experience a significant drop in sales of those items since instituting the Buyer Protection Fee.
eBay's reported net revenues in the UK were already down in Q1 2025 ($331 Million) compared to Q1 2024 ($390 Million).
And it's worth remembering that while eBay's initial plan was to launch the Buyer Protection fee on February 4th, they run into technical issues which pushed that back a few days and then switched to a phased approach which slowly rolled it out category by category over about a month.
Liz Morton
That means realistically the Buyer Protection Fee on items from private sellers was only fully in effect for about 1/3 of Q1 and we won't see the full impact of the fees on sales in the UK until eBay reports Q2 results on July 30th.
The fact that eBay rushed this fee change, putting it into effect the same day it was announced, suggests they may be trying to get ahead of any negative impact that will be revealed in that Q2 earnings report.
In addition to dropping selling fees and instituting buyer fees, eBay made another major change for UK private sellers in February, delaying their payouts until after delivery confirmation.
Liz Morton
Today's announcement also included updates to this policy which will go into effect August 6th:
August 2025 updates to funds availability for private sellers
Starting 6 August 2025, private sellers with a strong sales history will receive their funds in their eBay balance within 24 hours of the buyer's payment, unless subject to a hold.To qualify for this payment experience, you’ll need the following:
- At least 10 completed sales with a combined total of £150 or more within the last 5 years
- We’ll only count sales that didn’t have a refund, return, chargeback, cancellation, or case
- We’ll look at all sales 5 years from the current date. For example, if it’s 6 August 2025, we’ll look at sales since 6 August 2020
- We'll add up the subtotal for each sale (item price + postage costs) to work out the combined total
- For orders using Simple Delivery, we'll only include the item price
- We won't include any additional fees or taxes that the buyer was required to pay at checkout
- No more than 2 open requests, cases, or transaction defects in the last 12 months
- An open request or case is when a buyer reports an issue with their order that hasn't been resolved yet
- We count a transaction defect when either of these things happen:
- The seller cancelled the order unexpectedly (e.g. because it was out of stock, or because they sold it to someone else)
- eBay reviewed a case and found the seller responsible
Starting 6 August, you’ll be able to track your progress toward meeting these criteria in My eBay.
We’ll evaluate each order for 15 days after it's placed before adding it to the tracker, and we’ll remove an order if issues arise. We’ll also notify you as soon as you qualify. If you’re already meeting these criteria, you’ll automatically benefit from this payment experience.
The long delay in payouts had also been a strong point of contention for many longtime sellers so this is a good change but again raises questions about whether eBay may have seen a significant reduction in selling activity related to the initial policy that they are now backtracking to try to correct.
Private sellers have also had many complaints about being forced to use Simple Delivery managed shipping, and while unfortunately eBay is not backtracking on that requirement, they have at least finally introduced the capability for users to book Royal Mail pickup with label delivery through the platform.
We’re excited to share that you can now book a Royal Mail home collection directly on eBay, at no extra cost. Once booked, the courier will automatically bring your prepaid label when they come to pick up your item, no printer required.
Don’t forget, if you have a preference between Royal Mail and Evri, you can set your preferred courier in your Postage Preferences.
What do you think of these updates to eBay UK's Buyer Protection Fee and Private Seller Payouts? Let us know in the comments below!
