Moderation problems in online marketplaces

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This stub will be used to document the significant issues with moderation in online marketplaces that impact consumers by exposing them to potential scams and harmful products.

Why moderation is important

Before getting to the examples of bad moderation its important to understand why moderation is important. Here's a summary:

1. Protection from malicious scams - the most obvious purpose of moderation is to protect consumers from malicious scams especially those that use false advertising to attract customers.
2. Supporting informed purchases - moderation also forces sellers to provide buyers sufficient information to make informed decisions on their purchases. Bad moderation may result in buyers being unable to make informed decisions and could result in otherwise preventable returns and loss of revenue.

Relevant seller rules

These rules will be referred back to multiple times so it is only sensible to list them out beforehand

eBay rules for sellers

The following descriptions are taken directly from the eBay seller practices policy page.

Item descriptions

In regards to item descriptions eBay has the following requirements:

The listing page is where buyers get most of their information about an item. Information in the listing helps buyers decide what to buy and know what to expect when they receive the item. It's important to make sure that the listing is only used to describe the item for sale and to communicate the terms of the sale in a professional way.

You're required to:

• Specify the condition of the item
• Describe any defects or flaws in the item – this helps avoid problems or buyer dissatisfaction

Note: When selling a used, refurbished, or flawed item, you must include photos of the actual item for sale instead of a stock photo.

Any items that fail to meet description requirements should be at the very least temporarily taken off sale until the seller corrects the information. The "Note" section is also extremely important as it prohibits using stock photos for modified or flawed items.

Examples of moderation failures

Missing information in Spotify Car Thing resales

The Spotify Car Thing (SCT) is a now discontinued and bricked-out-of-the-box product that continues to be sold on some online marketplaces. There are legitimate reasons to sell discontinued or bricked products: some people may be interested in refurbishing them, they may want to use components for their own purposes, etc. Even with the positives in mind consumers have an expectation that the seller is honest, platforms must moderate content such that the consumer is aware of any flaws in the purchase. The SCT is a perfect item to demonstrate that companies do not moderate the content properly.

eBay listings violate the policy

It is not difficult to find several examples of the SCT being sold on eBay with objectively inadequate descriptions. A snapshot of all 63 posts found searching for "Spotify Car Thing" selling a Spotify Car Thing was made on 2025-01-30 at 3:15pm ET and stored as a .csv. The findings of the snapshot are particularly concerning towards the efficacy of eBay's moderation system.

1. 29 (46%) of all postings are "new" condition.
2. 3 (4%) of all titles included "bricked" or similar.
3. 3. 13 (20%) of all titles included discontinued.
4. 6 (9%) of all titles included mention of hacks or "DeskThing" - some are even pre-hacked.
5. 14 (22%) of descriptions mentioned the bricking.
6. 28 (44%) of descriptions mentioned discontinuation.
7. 18 (28%) mentioned desk thing or hacks.
8. 3 posts had no description at all.
9. The average price was $161.54 - Car Thing originally costed $89.99. The max price was $350, min was $30 (around the min price spotify sold it at).

The fact that even just one post exists without a description for a product that effectively does not work without significant modification is evidence that eBay does not truly require an accurate description and that eBay does not take pre-emptive steps to protect consumers from potentially bad products sold on the platform.