eBay to Ban Independent AI Agents

Online marketplace eBay has announced a significant shift in how it governs AI interaction on its platform, moving to explicitly prohibit third-party AI agents and autonomous shopping bots from browsing, bidding, or completing transactions on the site without prior approval.

Under a recent update to its terms of service, eBay will ban the use of automated tools — including “buy-for-me agents, LLM-driven bots, or any end-to-end flow that attempts to place orders without human review” — unless those tools are explicitly authorised by eBay. This policy update, which becomes effective on February 20, 2026, expands on the platform’s existing terms that already barred basic robots, spiders, scrapers, and automated data-gathering tools.

The policy is designed to address the rapid rise of what industry analysts call “agentic commerce”, an emerging paradigm in which AI tools act on behalf of users to search for products, compare prices, and autonomously complete transactions. These agents, often powered by large language models and advanced automation, are increasingly capable of interacting with e-commerce platforms without direct human input.

Why eBay Is Taking This Step

eBay’s decision is driven by several key concerns tied to marketplace fairness and commercial control:

1. Protecting Fair Access for Human Buyers:
   Autonomous AI agents could outpace human shoppers in placing bids or purchasing limited inventory, potentially giving an unfair advantage to machine-driven buyers and undermining the auction-style marketplace model eBay is known for.
2. Preventing Manipulative or Scalping Behaviour:
   Without restrictions, AI bots could be programmed to monitor listings, manipulate bidding in real time, or hoard items in bulk for resale, which could disrupt pricing dynamics and fairness.
3. Preserving Marketplace Revenue and Data Control:
   Independent AI agents can bypass standard user interfaces and tracking mechanisms, making it harder for eBay to attribute sales properly and capture advertising data — factors that are central to its revenue and ad ecosystem.
4. Limiting Automated Scraping:
   Alongside transactional AI agents, the new terms also reinforce bans on tools designed to scrape data or extract listings in bulk without permission, which can impact server loads and violate user privacy.

What the Ban Covers

The updated terms of use bear a broad scope:

• The prohibition includes LLM-driven bots and autonomous shopping agents that can perform multi-step actions such as searching for products, comparing prices, negotiating, and checking out without direct human input.
• It also continues to restrict traditional bots such as spiders, scrapers, and automated listing extraction tools that access the platform without consent.
• The ban does not necessarily eliminate all AI use on the platform — tools that have obtained prior permission from eBay or are operated by approved partners may still interact with the system under controlled conditions.

Broader E-Commerce and AI Context

eBay’s move comes amid a broader industry debate over how to balance AI innovation with platform integrity. Similar tensions are playing out across other major retailers and marketplaces:

• Amazon has also taken steps to block unauthorized AI shopping bots, including legal action against certain agentic tools, as it seeks to protect its platform and customer experience.
• Emerging AI commerce tools from companies like Google and Perplexity are testing agentic shopping models, prompting platforms to reassess how they interact with automated agents.

These developments reflect a deeper question in the evolution of retail technology: who controls the checkout experience when digital agents — rather than human users — might be initiating and completing purchases. Platforms such as eBay are drawing boundaries to ensure that control, revenue, and data flow remain with the marketplace rather than external AI providers.

What This Means for Users and Developers

• Shoppers: Standard human users will not notice immediate changes in daily browsing or purchasing behaviour once the ban takes effect. However, users who experiment with autonomous AI tools to interact with eBay on their behalf will need to discontinue such tools or seek eBay approval.
• Developers and AI Toolmakers: AI startups and developers building shopping agents must now consider eBay’s permission framework if they want their tools to operate on the site. Unapproved bots could be blocked or violate the updated terms.
• Commerce Platforms: Other e-commerce systems may watch closely as eBay, Amazon, and others navigate the trade-off between embracing AI capabilities and safeguarding platform fairness and revenue.

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