eBay: Bid on your own auction - allowed?
If you bid on your own auction on eBay, you can drive up the price. In this article we explain whether this is also allowed.
Bidding on your own eBay auction is punishable
It sounds perfect: the previous bid is quite low, so why not bid too and drive the interested parties to higher bids? However, this is not a trivial offense - this is punishable:
- The eBay Terms and Conditions prohibit sellers from bidding on the auction through an additional user account. Friends shouldn't be pushed to drive up the price either.
- The eBay security team checks individual auctions if a suspicion is reported by users and carries out its own random checks.
- If an illegal bidding can be determined (e.g. due to the same IP address), eBay warns the user and blocks the user account in the event of a repeat.
- Affected buyers can file criminal charges for fraud. Court rulings such as that of the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main (AZ 12U51-13) from June 27, 2014 show that high fines or a prison sentence of several years can be the consequence. the maximum sentence for fraud is five years in prison.
In the next article you will read whether bidding agents are legal for eBay.