The INFORM Consumers Act

Your trust in eBay is at the heart of everything we do and it’s no different with the new INFORM Consumers Act. The new law provides a national standard that ensures a safe online buying experience for consumers while protecting the privacy of individual and small business sellers.

We’re grateful to lawmakers who partnered with eBay to align on one federal compliance standard that prevents burdensome information collection requirements.

We’re committed to ensuring a trusted and safe marketplace for buyers and sellers, and we’ll continue to advocate on your behalf.


Here’s what you need to know:

  • The INFORM Consumers Act aims to create a safe and transparent online buying process and requires marketplaces like eBay to collect, verify, and disclose certain high-volume seller information.
  • A high-volume seller is someone who has sold 200 or more new items totaling more than $5,000 in a 12-consecutive-month period over the last 24 months on our US site.
  • If you meet that criteria, we’ll need to collect and verify some identification and contact information.
  • High-volume sellers will need to keep their information up to date and we’ll ask you to review it annually.
  • If you reach an annual total revenue of $20,000, we’re required to include your name (or company name) and full physical address in purchase confirmation emails and order details. There are some exceptions that allow us to share a partial address with buyers.
  • The exceptions to sharing your full physical address for the INFORM Consumers Act are:
1

If your address is your residential address, only your state and country will be shown.

2

If you use a different address for product returns, then that return address will be displayed.

  • If you meet the criteria for sharing a partial address with buyers, you can request an exception below:
Request an exception

The basics

The INFORM Consumers Act is designed to create a safe and transparent online buying process. This law requires online marketplaces like eBay to collect, verify, and disclose certain information about high-volume sellers to their buyers.

The INFORM Consumers Act impacts high-volume sellers, who are defined as sellers who have sold 200 or more new items totaling more than $5,000 during a 12-consecutive-month period over the last 24 months on our US site.

If you’ve sold 200 or more new items totaling more than $5,000 in a 12-consecutive-month period over the last 24 months on our US site, we’ll need to collect and verify your:

  • Bank account number
  • Tax identification number
  • Phone number
  • Email address

If you’re a business seller, we’ll also need to collect and verify a copy of your government-issued ID.

And once you reach $20,000 in annual eBay revenue, we’re required to include your name (or company name) and full physical address in purchase confirmation emails and order details, but there are some exceptions.

Prior to the INFORM Consumers Act becoming effective, you’ll be able to certify whether you’re eligible for an exception. If we determine you don’t qualify for one of these exceptions or if you’re not responding to buyers within a reasonable amount of time, we may need to include your full physical address in purchase order confirmation emails and order details.

The collection, processing, and sharing of your personal information will continue to be governed by our User Privacy Notice, including as required by other laws and regulations.

No, but you’ll need to keep your information up to date and we’ll ask you to review everything annually.

The good news is you already provided most of this information when you signed up for eBay. If you sell over 200 new items totaling more than $5,000, we’ll send you instructions on how to upload your information in Seller Hub and My eBay if we need additional information from you.

We’re building an exception process for you to certify that you’re eligible for an exception to sharing your full physical address under the law. This process will be available prior to the INFORM Consumers Act going into effect.

Without this information, we may need to put your payouts or account on hold. Once all of your information is collected and verified, you’ll be ready for your next sale.

The INFORM Consumers Act is expected to go into effect on June 27, 2023. We’re committed to keeping you informed about possible impacts on your business.

If you have any questions or concerns, just get in touch. We’re here to help.

Feedback