eBay shill bidding policy: what counts as shill bidding and what sellers must never do

What is the eBay shill bidding policy?

The eBay shill bidding policy bans any bid or purchase made to push up an item's price, desirability or search standing, rather than to actually buy it. Shill bidding means placing fake bids, or getting someone else to place them, so that genuine buyers pay more or see more interest than really exists. The principle is the same on eBay.co.uk and eBay.com.

You can read eBay's current wording on the shill bidding policy pages for the UK and the US. Both sit inside eBay's selling practices rules, and they apply whether you sell one item a year or run thousands of listings.

The rule exists because auctions only work when every bid is real. A buyer who bids against a fake bidder pays more than the real market would have charged. That harms the buyer, and it harms every honest seller whose prices look low next to inflated ones.

What counts as shill bidding on eBay?

Any bid or purchase that is not a genuine attempt to buy the item can count. These are the actions that put sellers in breach:

• Bidding on your own listing from your selling account or from any other account you control.
• Using a second account (an old personal account, a business account or a new one opened for the purpose) to bid on or buy your items.
• Asking someone else to bid to raise the price: a friend, a relative, a colleague, a contact from a forum or another seller in a "you bid on mine, I bid on yours" arrangement.
• Bidding high to uncover another bidder's maximum and then retracting the bid.
• Buying your own fixed-price items to inflate the sold count or make a listing look popular.
• Buying your own items to collect feedback, which also breaks eBay's feedback rules.

A useful test: was the bid placed to buy the item, or to change how the item looks to other buyers? If the honest answer is the second, do not place it and do not ask anyone else to.

Paying for the bid or purchase does not make it acceptable. Even if your second account pays in full and you pay the fees, the bid still misleads other buyers about the price and demand.

Can friends, family or colleagues bid on your eBay items?

This is where honest sellers most often get caught out. People close to you, such as family, housemates and staff, may know things other bidders do not: your reserve price, the lowest figure you would accept or the real condition of the item. eBay's shill bidding policy deals specifically with bids from people you know for this reason, so read the current wording on the policy page before you let anyone close to you bid.

The cautious approach is the simplest one:

1. Tell family, housemates and anyone who works with you not to bid on your auctions.
2. If someone close to you genuinely wants an item, sell it to them before you list it, not during the auction.
3. Make sure staff who use your seller account understand that using their own accounts to bid on your items is off limits.
4. If you share a computer or a household with another eBay member who also sells, agree that neither of you bids on the other's listings.

Do not assume a bid placed without your knowledge will be treated as innocent. The bids still happened on your listing, and it is far easier to prevent the problem than to explain it afterwards.

Does the shill bidding policy apply to Buy It Now listings?

The policy is not limited to auctions. Its aim covers anything that artificially raises an item's desirability or search standing, and buying your own fixed-price items to inflate the sold count does exactly that.

The temptation is easy to understand. eBay lists the factors its Best Match search considers: how closely the listing matches the search terms, how popular the item is, the price, the quality and completeness of the listing, listing terms such as the return policy and handling time, and the seller's track record. eBay does not say how much weight each factor carries. Popularity is on that list, so a fake sale looks like a shortcut. It is a breach, not a shortcut.

Fake purchases also tend to bring feedback with them, and feedback left on your own sales damages the trust that every buyer relies on. Our guide to removing negative feedback on eBay covers the routes that work within the rules and the ones that break them.

Legitimate ways to get more visibility

• Fill in item specifics such as make, model, size, colour and style, which eBay advises for Best Match.
• Write a complete, accurate description and use clear photos.
• Set clear returns and handling time terms you can actually meet.
• Use Promoted Listings. With a general (cost per sale) campaign you pay only when the promoted item sells within 30 days of a click on the ad, and the fee is your ad rate as a percentage of the total sale amount at the rate in effect when it sells. See eBay's Promoted Listings help page.

How does shill bidding hurt buyers? A worked example

Example: these figures are entirely hypothetical and only show how the mechanics work. Suppose you list a used camera lens as an auction with a £20 starting price. Two genuine bidders take part. Bidder A sets a maximum bid of £85 and Bidder B sets a maximum of £110.

eBay's automatic bidding raises the winning bid only as far as it needs to beat the next highest bid, by one bid increment (eBay sets the increment sizes). So in an honest auction, Bidder B wins at roughly £85 plus one increment.

In the second row, Bidder B paid about £20 more purely because of a fake bid. In the third, the seller lost a real buyer and created a fake sale on the record. Neither outcome helps the seller in the long run, and both are breaches of the policy.

What can eBay do if it finds shill bidding?

eBay can take action against the listings and the accounts involved, which can include both the bidding accounts and the selling account. Depending on the case, action can range from removing listings and warnings to limits on buying or selling, or suspension. The policy pages on eBay.co.uk and eBay.com describe the possible actions, and the principle is the same on both sites.

If eBay contacts you about shill bidding:

1. Read the message carefully and note which listings and which accounts it mentions.
2. Work out honestly who placed the bids and why. If a family member or colleague bid, say so.
3. Explain what you have changed: who you have told not to bid, and how you will stop it happening again.
4. Do not open a new account to get around a restriction or suspension. That is a further breach of eBay's rules.

If your account has already been limited, our guides on what to do when your eBay account is restricted and how to write a suspension appeal eBay can act on set out the next steps.

Shill bidding can also raise questions outside eBay, because it misleads buyers about price and demand. If you are worried about the legal side of something that has already happened, speak to a qualified adviser about your own situation.

Is automatic repricing a form of price manipulation?

Changing the price of your own fixed-price listing, up or down, is normal selling. The shill bidding policy targets fake bids and fake purchases, which mislead buyers about what other people are willing to pay. A price change shows the buyer the real price you are offering at that moment.

Where repricing can still go wrong is accuracy. A price that jumps because a source page was misread, or a "was" price you cannot back up, misleads buyers in its own way. Only show reference prices you can justify, and keep a record of why each price changed. Dropizon, for example, reprices eBay listings from the seller's own formula through eBay's official APIs, records a reason for every push and every hold, and uses a currency guard and a price circuit breaker to stop unusual changes going live until you review them. You can see how that works on the How Dropizon works page.

If you track Amazon prices, remember eBay's drop shipping rule. eBay allows dropshipping where you fulfil orders directly from a wholesale supplier, but listing an item on eBay and then buying it from another retailer or marketplace that ships directly to your buyer is not allowed. Whatever your sourcing, you remain responsible for safe delivery within the time stated in your listing and for the buyer's overall satisfaction. Read eBay's drop shipping policy on eBay.co.uk and eBay.com.

A quick checklist to stay inside the rules

Work through this list today, especially if more than one person in your household or business uses eBay:

• Never bid on or buy your own items from any account, including old or business accounts.
• Tell family, housemates and staff, in writing if you employ people, not to bid on your listings.
• Close or stop using any spare eBay accounts you no longer need for genuine buying.
• Do not join bid swap or "support each other" groups with other sellers.
• Use a reserve price or a realistic starting price to protect your minimum, instead of a protective bid.
• Grow visibility with item specifics, good photos, clear terms and, if it suits you, Promoted Listings.
• Check that every "was" or reference price you show is one you can back up.
• Bookmark the UK and US shill bidding policy pages and reread them when you change how you sell.