Home : Help : Rules & Safety (SafeHarbour) : End Auction

We want eBay to be a safe and enjoyable place for you to trade. That means we want you to be able to buy and sell items without doing something that may get you in trouble with law enforcement, rights owners, or eBay itself. To help protect our users, we have created guidelines and policies describing what cannot be listed on eBay and which might expose you to risk. See our Prohibited, Questionable & Infringing Items and eBay's Listing Policies pages. We are here to help, but you are ultimately responsible for making sure your item is permissible to sell on eBay.

Why was my auction ended by eBay? If your auction was ended early by eBay, it probably means that the item you were selling or the listing itself was either:

1. prohibited by law
2. prohibited by eBay's policies or
3. identified as infringing somebody's copyright, trademark or other rights.

We do not generally monitor our site looking for particular items, but we often receive reports from eBay users and third parties, as well as individuals and companies who are members of our Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) Program. More on VeRO below. Here's what we do with the information:

• If an auction offers an item prohibited by law or eBay's policies, we end the auction.
• If the auction offers an item which can be considered an "apparent" or "blatant" violation of someone's copyright, trademark or other intellectual property rights ("infringing"), we end the auction.
• If the auction offers an allegedly infringing item, but eBay can't tell this by looking at the auction, we probably won't end it, but we will try to refer it to the owner of the rights involved.
• If the report comes from a rights owner participating in our VeRO Program, we will review the item and, unless there is an obvious error, we will end the auction. eBay does not end every auction requested by a VeRO Program Member.

In all cases where we end an auction early, we automatically credit the fees for that auction.

What is the VeRO Program? eBay established the Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) Program (formerly known as the Legal Buddy Program) to work with rights owners to educate eBay users about infringing items and to enable rights owners to request removal of allegedly infringing items. Our program is based upon a Federal statute. Before removing any item, eBay requires that VeRO Program Members swear under penalty of perjury that they are authorized to represent the rights owner, and that they have a good faith belief that the identified auction violates their rights. eBay reviews the reported items and, unless there is an obvious error, ends the auction. If we fail to end an infringing auction, we may expose you and eBay to liability.

What if I disagree with the ending of my auction by eBay? If eBay ended your auction you can reply back to the end auction email. Your email will go to moreinfo@ebay.com. If after review, we feel your auction was ended in error, we will allow you to relist.

What if I disagree with the ending of my auction requested by a VeRO Program Member? eBay requires that VeRO Members provide an email address so our users can contact the VeRO Member directly about the ending of their auctions. This email address appears in all end auction notices requested by that VeRO Member. (We also encourage VeRO Members to create an About Me page describing their policies, and we link this page to end auction notices.) Of course, eBay is available to help answer questions, but since only the rights owner understands their products and policies, eBay is often not able to resolve disputes. If you are not able to achieve satisfaction by contacting the rights owner directly, you can file a formal appeal with eBay. We will do our best to help resolve the situation. If we resolve the situation in your favor, or if the VeRO Program Member consents, we will allow you to relist the item.

What will happen if I list or relist Prohibited, Questionable or Infringing Items on eBay? You're asking for trouble. Not only can you get suspended from eBay, but you could be sued by a rights owner and prosecuted by criminal authorities. Believe us, it happens and we don't want it to happen to you.

Does eBay give out my personal information to VeRO Program Members? VeRO Program Members are required to be members of eBay. That means they can request information about you just like any other user. Some of them do so and contact eBay users directly about their auctions. eBay is not involved in that process at all. As stated in our User Agreement, eBay also cooperates with law enforcement, and may give your street address to a VeRO Program Member. We never give out your credit card information, except in rare cases when required by a court or law enforcement.

We want you to enjoy eBay for many years to come. Please review our policies and trade safely. If you still have questions regarding ended auctions or listing items on eBay, write to us at moreinfo@ebay.com.