eBay User Agreement Update May 2025: New Arbitration Terms & Limits On Lawsuits
eBay has released an update to the user agreement with significant changes to arbitration terms and limits on lawsuits, effective May 16th 2025.
The following summary of changes was provided in an email sent to users:
We’ve updated eBay’s User Agreement, including the agreement to arbitrate any disputes you may have with us. Our updated User Agreement was posted on April 16, 2025. For users who agreed to a prior version of our User Agreement, this agreement is effective as of May 16, 2025.
The agreement to arbitrate in the updated User Agreement, with limited exceptions, requires you and eBay to submit disputes to binding arbitration. Below is a summary of the key changes:
- We changed the designated arbitration provider to National Arbitration & Mediation
- We updated the arbitration procedures to make them more efficient when substantially similar arbitration requests are filed by multiple users
- We revised the process for you to opt out of the agreement to arbitrate
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.
First, as the summary calls out, eBay is changing their designated arbitration provider to National Arbitration & Mediation (NAM) and that all disputes will be handled according to NAM rules.
Importantly, under this new version of the User Agreement, eBay users are now required to explicitly waive their right to a jury trial for disputes.
Old Version:
If you do not opt out: (1) you will only be permitted to pursue claims against us or our agents on an individual basis, not as a plaintiff or class member in any class or representative action or proceeding, and (2) you will only be permitted to seek relief (including monetary, injunctive, and declaratory relief) on an individual basis.
New Version:
If you do not opt out: (1) you will only be permitted to pursue claims against us or related third parties on an individual basis, not as a plaintiff or class member in any class or representative action or proceeding; (2) you will only be permitted to seek relief (including monetary, injunctive, and declaratory relief) on an individual basis; and (3) you are waiving your right to pursue disputes or claims and seek relief in a court of law and to have a jury trial.
Further down in the new policy, eBay has added a new section specifically about the waiver of jury trial rights.
Waiver of Jury Trial
YOU AND EBAY HEREBY WAIVE ANY CONSTITUTIONAL AND STATUTORY RIGHTS TO SUE IN COURT AND HAVE A TRIAL IN FRONT OF A JUDGE OR A JURY. You and eBay are instead electing that all Disputes shall be resolved by arbitration under this Agreement to Arbitrate, except as specified in Section 19.B ("Agreement to Arbitrate").
eBay has also added an entirely new section governing vehicle sales tied to their recent acquisition of car auction site Caramel.
Liz Morton
This section is quite lengthy, so I won't copy and paste the entire text, but anyone looking to buy a vehicle through eBay and/or Caramel should review it before purchasing.
Important points from Section 4 Vehicle Purchases & Sales:
- eBay is not a vehicle broker, vehicle dealer, or an agent acting on behalf of vehicle brokers, dealers, buyers or sellers.
- eBay does not maintain an inventory of vehicles for sale and does not sell, exchange, buy, offer for sale, negotiate or attempt to negotiate sales or exchanges of an interest in any vehicle listed on eBay sites.
- You agree that any reliance on vehicle information on eBay sites is at your own risk.
- Any discrepancies or mistakes made regarding vehicle availability, quality, safety, condition, pricing, financing, insurance and the like are not the fault or responsibility of eBay.
- Neither the accuracy of vehicle information provided on eBay.com, nor the availability, quality, or safety of vehicles is guaranteed by eBay.
- The purchase of a vehicle encompasses multiple disciplines and eBay is not an expert on matters such as vehicle market valuation, laws relating to vehicles, taxes relating to vehicles, vehicle financing, vehicle registration, vehicle insurance, vehicle condition safety, and inspections, or vehicle mechanical fitness and engineering.
Informal Dispute Resolution
eBay has added a clause requiring users to submit to informal dispute resolution - which is a 45 day cooling off period before arbitration can even begin.
If a Dispute arises between you and eBay, eBay is committed to working with you to reach a prompt, low‐cost and mutually reasonable resolution.
You and eBay agree to participate in good faith informal efforts to resolve Disputes before starting an arbitration or initiating an action in small claims court ("Informal Dispute Resolution").
To initiate Informal Dispute Resolution, a party must give notice to the other party in writing in a valid Notice of Dispute ("Notice"), which may be downloaded at this link. Such Notice to eBay should be sent by email to DisputeNotice@eBay.com or regular mail to our offices located at 583 W. eBay Way, Draper, UT 84020.
eBay will send any Notice to you to the physical address we have on file associated with your eBay account; it is your responsibility to keep your physical address up to date.
To be valid, you must personally sign the Notice and complete all information on the Notice form, including a description of the claims you are asserting, the specific relief sought, and the user name, email address and phone number associated with your account.
The Informal Dispute Resolution process lasts 45 days and is a mandatory precondition to commencing arbitration. The statute of limitations and any filing deadlines shall be tolled while the parties engage in Informal Dispute Resolution.
Confidentiality
eBay has also added a new section on confidentiality which states that all materials exchanged during arbitration are not to be shared outside of the parties’ attorneys, accountants, or business advisors.
Subject to the NAM Rules, the arbitrator may direct a limited and reasonable exchange of information between the parties, consistent with the expedited nature of the arbitration.
You and eBay agree that all materials and documents exchanged during the arbitration proceedings shall be kept confidential and shall not be shared with anyone except the parties’ attorneys, accountants, or business advisors, and shall be subject to the condition that they agree to keep all materials and documents exchanged during the arbitration proceedings confidential.
There's already a troubling history of eBay requiring non-disclosure agreements as a condition of participation in certain programs or seller engagement opportunities, but this confidentiality requirement for arbitration is even more restrictive.
The NAM rules take this even further, explicitly saying confidentiality applies to all written and oral communication, not just documents:
All documents and materials submitted to or filed with NAM shall remain private and not subject to public scrutiny. By the parties’ agreement (as further set forth in NAM. R.P.4), all communications, whether oral or written, and all testimony will remain confidential, and inadmissible in any other judicial or alternative dispute resolution proceeding, with the exception of an appeal if the parties mutually agree in writing to an appeal process.
Fees & Costs
Another new section on Fees and Costs introduces new terms which may disadvantage individual claimants and the introduction of "sanctions" for filing "frivolous" claims which may be effective in deterring users from seeking arbitration for even legitimate claims as it could carry the risk of being responsible for all arbitration and legal fees for both sides.
Payment of all filing, administration, and arbitrator fees will be governed by the applicable NAM fee schedules (the "Fee Schedules"), but may be reapportioned between the parties in accordance with this Agreement to Arbitrate, as follows:
if you complied with the Informal Dispute Resolution requirements in Section 1 of this Agreement and the value of the relief sought in the Dispute is $10,000 or less, at your request eBay will pay all filing, administration, and arbitrator fees associated with the arbitration.
The parties shall bear their own attorneys’ fees and costs in arbitration unless the arbitrator finds that either the substance of the Dispute or the relief sought in the Demand was frivolous or was brought for an improper purpose (as measured by the standards set forth in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(b)).
To the extent, following a presentation on the merits, on its own motion or a party’s, and after affording a reasonable opportunity to respond, an arbitrator determines that a party who commenced arbitration did not bring its claim(s) consistent with counsel’s Certification and the standards set forth in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(b), the arbitrator may, as part of its award, impose sanctions by ordering that the initiating party reimburse the responding party for all arbitration costs and arbitrators’ fees the responding party incurred under the Fee Schedule.
Batch Arbitration
eBay's new terms introduce Batch Arbitration, where similar individual demands are grouped together with a single arbiter assigned to review and make a decision for the entire batch at once.
While eBay and NAM position Batch Arbitration as a way to increase the efficiency of the process, it's important to note that batching claims in this way significantly reduces transparency and visibility into the details of any specific individual claim.
To increase the efficiency of administration and resolution of arbitrations, you and eBay agree that in the event that there are 25 or more individual Demands of a substantially similar nature filed against eBay by or with the assistance of the same law firm, group of law firms, or organizations ("Claimant’s Counsel"), within a reasonably proximate period of time, for example, a 90 day period, NAM shall:
- (1) administer the arbitration demands in batches of 100 Demands per batch (or, if between 25 and 99 individual Demands are filed, a single batch of all those Demands, and, to the extent there are less than 100 Demands remaining after the batching described above, a final batch consisting of the remaining Demands);
- (2) appoint one arbitrator for each batch; and
- (3) provide for the resolution of each batch on a consolidated basis with one set of filing and administrative fees due per batch, one procedural calendar, one hearing (if any) in a place to be selected by Claimant’s Counsel or, if Claimant’s Counsel does not have a preference, by the arbitrator, and one final award, which will provide for any and all relief to which the arbitrator determines each individual party is entitled ("Batch Arbitration").
NAM shall administer all batches concurrently, to the extent possible.
All parties agree that Demands are of a "substantially similar nature" if they arise out of or relate to the same event or factual scenario and raise the same or similar legal issue(s) and seek the same or similar relief.
Taken in total, the intent of this update is clear - eBay is absolutely looking to limit users' ability to make legal claims against the company and to dissuade users from exercising their legal rights by mandating a complicated and potentially expensive arbitration process.
Existing users have until May 16th to opt out of arbitration by filling out and mailing the opt out form:
YOU CAN CHOOSE TO OPT OUT OF THIS AGREEMENT TO ARBITRATE ("OPT OUT") BY MAILING US A WRITTEN OPT-OUT NOTICE ("OPT-OUT NOTICE"). THE OPT-OUT NOTICE MUST BE POSTMARKED NO LATER THAN THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF THE AMENDMENT OR 30 DAYS FROM THE DATE YOU FIRST ACCEPT THIS USER AGREEMENT.
YOU MUST MAIL THE OPT-OUT NOTICE TO EBAY INC., ATTN: LITIGATION DEPARTMENT, RE: OPT-OUT NOTICE, 583 WEST EBAY WAY, DRAPER, UT 84020.
For your convenience, we are providing an Opt-Out Notice form. You must complete, sign, and mail that to us to opt out of this Agreement to Arbitrate.
You must sign the Opt-Out Notice for it to be effective. Any Opt-Out Notice will be effective only if you send it yourself, on an individual basis, and opt-out notices from any third party purporting to act on your behalf will have no effect on your or eBay’s rights. This procedure is the only way you can opt out of this Agreement to Arbitrate.
