eBay explicitly bans AI "buy for me" agents in user agreement update

Post by deaux » Fri, Jan 23, 2026, 3:10 AM UTC

ethbr1 wrote: post #341

pranavj wrote: post #292

Banning AI agents is the new "banning mobile browsers." Companies tried that too in the early smartphone era - remember when sites blocked mobile user agents to force desktop views? The businesses that win will be the ones that build AI-agent-friendly interfaces, not the ones that try to ban them. eBay is protecting their ad revenue and impulse-buy funnel in the short term, but they're ceding the future to whoever fi…

> remember when sites blocked mobile user agents to force desktop views? You mean today, when web apps refuse to render to mobile browser agents, forcing redirect to mobile apps, but work fine when toggled to a desktop agent? TikTok, Instagram, etc.

Post by nprateem » Fri, Jan 23, 2026, 4:38 AM UTC

johnsmith1840 wrote: post #297

pranavj wrote: post #292

Banning AI agents is the new "banning mobile browsers." Companies tried that too in the early smartphone era - remember when sites blocked mobile user agents to force desktop views? The businesses that win will be the ones that build AI-agent-friendly interfaces, not the ones that try to ban them. eBay is protecting their ad revenue and impulse-buy funnel in the short term, but they're ceding the future to whoever fi…

I think more likely we will unlock browser agents and no company will develop an agent api. They will have a user facing website used by agents or humans the same way. This also completely sidesteps any actions Ebay decides. It will have all credentials for them and mfa. To ebay this will look identical to the user with no real way to stop it.

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jan 23, 2026, 12:25 PM UTC

some_random wrote: post #39

subroutine wrote: post #20

What is the use case for LLM agent shoppers? I can't imagine delegating the purchase of a used item to an AI (I'd be okay with AI identifying the best deals for me to review). This must be something for people who are doing something at scale like flipping items on Ebay or drop shipping. I imagine this type of automation existed before LLM agents came along - what do they add? Is it just the ability to evaluate the p…

"Hey ChatGPT I want to build my own personal cloud storage computer, buy all the hardware for me then walk me through building and configuring it. My budget is $600, try to get the best deals and make sure that all the parts are compatible. I'm fine with used parts as long as they're a good deal and are in working order."

Post by NickC25 » Fri, Jan 23, 2026, 3:09 PM UTC

direwolf20 wrote: post #335

NickC25 wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it is? I mean, it's deliberately misleading, but it's not fraud. If it says "box only", it means box only.

The judge and jury aren't stupid. A legitimate auction for a box would be very upfront about the box and would not start the description identically to one for a laptop.

Post by pwg » Fri, Jan 23, 2026, 4:02 PM UTC

haritha-j wrote: post #255

MarginalGainz wrote: post #180

This ban isn't about 'fairness' or bot protection; it's about protecting the Impression Funnel. Marketplaces like eBay are designed to monetize 'Wandering Attention'—sponsored listings, 'customers also bought', and sidebar ads. An AI Agent represents 'Laser Focused Attention'. It executes a transaction with zero wandering. It effectively turns the marketplace into a commoditized backend database / dumb pipe. From a G…

Or probably even wrose, it actually shifts the attention and the wandering. That phase will happen inside the LLM, where the LLM decides which link to suggest, i.e. whoever pays the LLM the most. And worse yet, that will apply not just for products, but for platforms, so if amazon pays chatgpt more than ebay does, there goes your sale.