Arbitrage selling is, by nature, a secretive or even sneaky practice. It doesn’t sit particularly well with the global trend towards more protection of consumers, data, and intellectual property.

Data protection

Data protection is an area that very few arbitrage sellers are likely to take seriously. In the EU, the new GDPR regulations mean that people must be clearly told who their data is given to, what they will do with it, and how they can get it deleted. So, arbitrage sellers on eBay in Europe should disclose that the buyers’ information will be passed to Amazon, possibly including third-party Amazon sellers, and tell them how they can get that data removed in the future!

Amazon to eBay dropshipping largely relies on the buyer not knowing that they could buy the product cheaper on Amazon, so this requirement will be hard to stomach for arbitrage sellers. GDPR fines, however, range up to 4% of annual global turnover or 20 million euros.

Consumer protection

Consumer law doesn’t prevent you from doing Amazon to eBay arbitrage. However, as the seller of the item, it is your responsibility to deal with any problems, including complaints and returns. You can’t simply direct the buyer to the Amazon seller – there is no direct relationship between those two parties.

If you are not willing or able to provide good customer service in line with the applicable consumer protection laws and eBay selling policies, then arbitrage selling isn’t a great idea for you.

Intellectual property rights

A common tactic used by Amazon sellers who do not want arbitrageurs selling their products, is to report them to eBay for intellectual property infringement under the Verified Rights Owners (VeRO) program.

These reports can be well-founded, particularly if you have used text and images straight from an Amazon listing without any modification or permission to use. But even if the report is baseless, it can be an effective way to get your eBay listings (or entire selling account) suspended.

Future policy or enforcement changes

Amazon or eBay could take strong action against arbitrage at any time. Either side could change their policies and enforcement actions to stamp it out completely. eBay could adjust their algorithms to detect arbitrage listings, then delete listings or severely restrict sales.

There are signs that eBay is starting to take some moderate action, pushing arbitrage listings lower in the search results. This was reported by Adi Reiss, CEO of arbitrage software company SaleFreaks, who then took legal action against eBay.

In February 2019, SaleFreaks reported a conversation with eBay Seller Support saying that accounts using dropshipping will not be suspended but will not be able to get Top Rated Seller status or use Promoted Listings.