No consumer protection on eBay. Seller cancels the contract after purchase and payment.
Summary: marflow911 shared their experience of a seller on eBay.de canceling a purchase after payment, which they considered against consumer rights. They expressed disappointment in eBay's system that prevents dispute initiation. perfect-sally and sunrise1605 argued that enforcing consumer rights is not eBay's responsibility. kometenhuhn supported marflow911's view on eBay needing better regulations. A discussion ensued about how eBay could implement systems to prevent sellers from canceling and relisting items at higher prices. marflow911 emphasized the need for eBay to ensure fairness and protect buyer rights, despite opposing views regarding eBay's role and capabilities.
I bought and paid for 4 items from a foreign seller on eBay.de. After some time, the seller from Poland simply cancels the purchase without any reason, which is not allowed at all under German law. He doesn't want to deliver the goods because in the meantime he's offering them in the same listing on eBay at a higher price (many hundreds of items available).
eBay's workflow doesn't even allow me as a private customer to open a case; it gets rejected electronically. eBay supports illegal behavior on its seller platform. I am very disappointed by this consumer-hostile structure of the platform; that didn't exist before !
sunrise1605
·Aug 17, 2026 at 10:24 PMWhat’s stopping you from enforcing your German consumer rights in Poland?
Or should other people do that instead and you just press a few little buttons .... well then ... that probably won’t work out.
And no, even before, Ebay didn’t care about users’ consumer rights.
marflow911
OP3 weeks agoHey Sunrise, are you actually active on eBay when buying, or do you just write comments? 🧐
sunrise1605
·3 weeks agoWhy are you asking, don't you like my comment?
marflow911
OP3 weeks agoI don't understand your comment, it goes against my rights as a buyer and against consumer protection. Of course eBay should make sure on the platform that sellers can't just simply reject purchases that have already been completed. And yes, there mustn't be some little "button" for the seller to harm me.
sunrise1605
·3 weeks agoWhere is my comment going against your rights?
It goes against your claim that Ebay would be responsible for that.
Ebay is only a virtual sales platform and not responsible for an unfulfilled purchase contract between you and the seller.
Ebay isn’t allowed to interfere there at all.
Of course eBay is supposed to ensure on the platform that sellers can’t just simply reject completed purchases.
Again for you: that is solely a matter between you and the seller.
And of course there has to be the option to cancel a sale on the seller’s side.
Why, for what reason, how, Ebay really can’t check that.
If you’ve got your money back, where have you suffered any damage?
Your annoyance is understandable, however you seem to be viewing things a bit one-sided, with all the German consumer rights and outrage.
That happens, but that still doesn’t give you any claim that Ebay should act for you. In whatever form.
marflow911
OP3 weeks agoOf course eBay is responsible for the transactions carried out on its platform, because it determines the terms and conditions, the purchase rules, and the technology, and thus massively influences the exercise of buyers' and sellers' rights.
There is no eBay if the people buying on it have no trust in the platform and the fairness of the business practices. This has nothing to do with the law or with preventing consumer rights, but rather with the one-sided favoritism of paying commercial customers to the detriment of private customers.
kometenhuhn
·3 weeks ago · EditedI don't see any preferential treatment when it comes to commercial sellers. Because I also regularly have the problem with private sellers that sales can be canceled arbitrarily.
I also think Ebay needs to do more here. It's not about a complete ban on initiating purchase cancellations, but more about ensuring that this is reviewed and, if necessary, more strongly sanctioned.
The reason for canceling a purchase - "buyer asked to cancel" should only be possible with the buyer's confirmation. Likewise, AI should be used to check that if sellers state "no longer available / lost" as the reason, the same item can no longer be listed again - e.g. for 3 months, or other sanctions apply - such as only 2 items per month or similar.
I do realize that, given the number of cases, people want to "take the easy way out" because it's simple, easier, and less time-consuming.
In times of AI, things should still be made more efficient here!
sunrise1605
·3 weeks agoIf you say so.
I wouldn't know how eBay is going to check that with sellers.
Whether the item is really out of stock, defective, or just priced too low.
Whether the seller is lying or not, who’s going to judge that.
eBay can’t possibly deal with things like that given the sheer number of listings.
Demands are always easy to make from customers; the practical implementation is then often not so easy for the company to realize or involves a disproportionate amount of effort.
There are always two sides to every story.
kometenhuhn
·Aug 17, 2026 at 7:20 PM · EditedYou see it completely correctly. It seems to be irrelevant whether the system is being misused for this purpose or, as in this case, abused.
Normally one could also implement a cancellation reason like
"I am not selling to you because I want to sell it to another interested buyer for a higher price".
Because that is by far - from my own experience - the most common reason for cancellations.
Sad, but true.
marflow911
OP3 weeks agoThere are many complaints of this kind on eBay, as I now have to realize. It is a systematic weakening of private sellers compared to commercial providers on the platform.
voli-maus
·Aug 17, 2026 at 6:59 PMThe VK is based in Poland, @marflow911
You had already rated it red
marflow911
OP3 weeks agoRight, the seller is based in Poland and sells a lot of BioTech USA supplements from there.
And no, the negative review was only posted after the purchase and his breach of contract by failing to fulfill the contract.
perfect-sally
·Aug 17, 2026 at 6:28 PMEbay is not responsible for consumer rights and is also not the one to enforce them for the buyer. You have to take that into your own hands.
marflow911
OP3 weeks agoThat doesn't apply to platform operators like eBay!
bootyooty
·3 weeks agoThat’s true for ebay, very much so,.