New Ohio Law Requires eBay Sellers to Get Licensed and Post Bond

The Internet Patrol default featured image
Share the knowledge

A new Ohio law, already signed and in effect, requires eBay sellers to become licensed, and to post a $50,000 bond. The new eBay auction law was signed by the Ohio governor in February, and will be effective on May 1st. In addition to the license and the $50,000 bond, because the new Ohio eBay law is founded on the Ohio auction laws, it also requires eBay sellers to attend auction school and pass an exam, and to serve as an apprentice auction seller for one year. eBay sellers failing to get the Ohio auction license face up to 90 days in jail and a $1000 fine.

Following an outcry over the new auction law, the law’s primary author, Ohio state senator Larry Mumper, said on the one hand that it wasn’t his intention to have this law apply to individual sellers, but on the other hand he also said in a public statement that “It certainly will not apply to the casual seller on eBay, but might apply to anyone who sells a lot. If someone buys and sells on eBay on a regular basis as a type of business, then there is a need for regulation.”

There is no definition of what “on a regular basis” means, nor “as a type of business”, but Aunty suspects that would apply to the vast majority of eBay sellers.

Hani Durzy, a spokesman for eBay, said “We do not believe the law applies to people who sell items on eBay or to eBay itself.” Of course, Aunty does not believe that Mr. Durzy is an attorney – and while yes, the law does not apply to eBay itself, it obviously quite clearly does apply to people who sell items on eBay, at least those in the state of Ohio.

Tennessee and Illinois are looking at implementing similar laws.

The Internet Patrol is completely free, and reader-supported. Your tips via CashApp, Venmo, or Paypal are appreciated! Receipts will come from ISIPP.

CashApp us Square Cash app link

Venmo us Venmo link

Paypal us Paypal link

Of course, this is almost certainly nothing as much as it’s a money grab by these states, as they attempt to cash in on the enormous amount of cash transactions which take place every day on eBay. Once you require someone to have a business license, you’ve got them by the money sacks.

Get New Internet Patrol Articles by Email!

The Internet Patrol is completely free, and reader-supported. Your tips via CashApp, Venmo, or Paypal are appreciated! Receipts will come from ISIPP.

CashApp us Square Cash app link

Venmo us Venmo link

Paypal us Paypal link

 


Share the knowledge

36 thoughts on “New Ohio Law Requires eBay Sellers to Get Licensed and Post Bond

  1. When an auction house sells items, the item is in hand and authenticated. They are a middleman, for a fee, to make sure the transaction occurs; buyer gets product and seller gets money. Everybody is happy. Ebay and the like, as middleman, should be held to the same standards as the auction house by requiring the establishment of an escrow type clearinghouse where authenticated product and legal tender are exchanged and sent to the respective buyer and seller. This would also minimize the amount of stolen and counterfeit product that is sold on Ebay. Ohio needs to apply their new law to Ebay, and not the lowly seller, by requiring a clearinghouse within their borders.

  2. Basic Law of Business & Retail:

    The harder, more costly or more inconvenient
    that you make it for your client
    (No matter what lame excuse you use).
    The more likely your competition
    (be it another business, state or country)
    will be thanking you for the business!!!

    I am sure the ebayers in our border states
    are saying: “Thank You For Your Support!!!”

    And to the idiots who put this law into efftect:
    “Here’s Your Sign!!!”

  3. Used to live in Ohio. Hate Ohio. It is an absolutely crooked state. Just wanted to get that out.

    If eBay doesn’t mount a fight against this, then it must be because they are looking for some kind of advantage out of it for themselves. I look around and everywhere I see the same thing – that every part of life is being deferred to big business. I doubt eBay is an exception.

    If this law works to exclude individual sellers and “small-timers”, then that means another area of freedom is swiped by the “big-timers”. It means the dissapprearance of the freedom of negotiation for people. Everything you buy will have a price you have no negotiative power over as an individual – not if it’s sold buy corporations and they control the price and the terms of evertything.

    well, that’s the theme I see with this bit of political chicanery, and if eBay isn’t resisting it either. If their not against it, then they are complicit, and they want a peice of the big actiuon themselves, that of wrestling the little guy out of any negotiative power he or she may have in this world.

  4. Hello all. I live in Ohio and have been selling for years. I look at this new law and think to myself WTF. I guess the part that really gets me is Where is E-Bay on this law they have had no response to this BS as far as I know? I have paid a lot of fees over the years!!

    They make MILLIONS a day and they must have a really good Law team. How can Ebay sit there and just watch the loss of income from all the states looking at this new law? I think that ebay should start a lobbying effort in DC I can’t believe that the shareholders would sit there and watch their profits decrease as the new laws go into affect. Ebay increases fees all the time. And now I think it is time to step up to the plate and start earning it. HELP IN OHIO!!!

    WoW I feel so much better… lol Thank you all!!! Good luck to my follow ebayers in Ohio.

  5. Hello all. I live in Ohio and have been selling for years. I look at this new law and think to myself WTF. I guess the part that really gets me is Where is E-Bay on this law they have had no response to this BS as far as I know? I have paid a lot of fees over the years!!

    They make MILLIONS a day and they must have a really good Law team. How can Ebay sit there and just watch the loss of income from all the states looking at this new law? I think that ebay should start a lobbying effort in DC I can’t believe that the shareholders would sit there and watch their profits decrease as the new laws go into affect. Ebay increases fees all the time. And now I think it is time to step up to the plate and start earning it. HELP IN OHIO!!!

    WoW I feel so much better… lol Thank you all!!! Good luck to my follow ebayers in Ohio.

  6. This law will hurt Ohioans and Ebay…..I don’t see it possibly could be a good thing. They’re trying to get similar law in Tennesse and Illinois. I think they tried and failed in South Carolina too…What is going on…Seems Nuts!

  7. It’s not enough that you have to pay e-bay, you also have to pay to the governor, the staff, the welfare lovers and the whole team of unemployed lazzy hoodlims. Reminds me of Soviet Union.

  8. I don’t think this pertains to ebayers because in reallity we do not actualy or physically auction the items off like anauctioneer and in ohio there was a law allowing you to auction your own items off the only time you needed bonded if you sold someone elses items or did it for a job

  9. Why the hell do we need a freaking license to sell items on ebay. Some people sell just to make a little bit of money….not because they have a business. If i want a little extra cash, i should not have to go to auction school and be an apprentice. This is bulls**t

  10. I’m from Ohio and I see only ASS HOLES running the state government. I don’t vote for these little people who can not get a mans job. I wait for the new civilation….how amny years do they last…read history polititions ruin the world.

  11. now im confused, i am a licensed used auto dealer putting cars on ebay.. i understand this as i don’t need the license, however, a little mom and pop shop selling figurines that are consigned to them would?? isn’t ebay the venue? guess that means the state can’t sell their goods on the internet either correct? ohio is becoming the worst of the nation.. idiot won’t allow a casino, which makes money go out of state.. duh… then we are the most impoverished state in the nation….horrible ohio sucks.. i wanna move just like everybody else.. oh, and let me remind you that when you die, ohio is one of the few states that has an “estate tax” scumbags need a piece of everything.

  12. Wow…never seen this much comment on Aunty before.
    I actually had to check the date to make sure it wasn’t 1st April.
    Can’t believe the idiocy of implementing a law without any thought to it’s obvious implications.

  13. Just another way for politicians to pick your pocket, and regulate the internet. Fire those suckers and send them a message.

  14. This is nothing but a bunch of b######t. People need to start doing something the more these jerks get by with this crap the more they’re gonna keep doing it.There’s no such thing as a politician doing something for the people anymore its whatever they can do for themselves. All politicians are crooked as far as i’m concerned,and i mean ALL.

  15. Ain’t that a b*****d for you, larry mumper is just a lowly republican fascist coward trying to get the attention of the bush totalitarian fascist regime. so he can follow in the footsteps of others, like ashbucket & go on to glory land w/the bushwackers.

  16. It was only a matter of time. As the world’s largest online fencing operation, regulations will be imposed. Sorry for all the honest people out there, but the rest messed it up.

  17. I guess not all ebay sellers are scum, but enough of them are so that this type of regulation is necessary.

  18. Er — I believe I was referring to “Anonymous” in post #_12_ . . . sorry about that! :-)

    RE: post 15, (Larry): Yep — the Legislature has recently introduced (and partially passed) laws enabling *them* to sell extra State property on eBay: here’s a quote from HB 68:

    · Allows the Director of Transportation to sell, by any method most advantageous to the Department, including an Internet auction, personal property that is unfit for use or not needed by the Department of Transportation.”

    There were several other references that kept getting in the way of finding SB99 yesterday, but for the sake of brevity, I’ll leave it with that.

  19. Does the State of Ohio (name any department) do any business on e-bay. That should mean that the person from
    the state that post the sale should be bonded. Making the state eat its own dog food would surely get this fixed rather quickly.

  20. I just spoke with the auctioneer dept at the dept of agriculture. This law is currently being revised sucjh that it will not apply to individual sellers but only to people like me who are selling via consigment service. The law will require only a testing fee ($50), a yearly license ($100) and the bond of 50,000 (estimated at $250 a year). great way to blow a new cottage industry out of the water before it has a chance to get off the ground, eh?!

    That said, I hope you all will come out and support us… check out the website for details! www.youroutpost.net

  21. Looks to me like a way to collect a tax on Ebay sellers without actually calling it a tax. Big Brother has to get his cut one way or the other. Hell, the Feds get theirs so now the states are looking for a way to get their slice of the pie. You can bet if it works in Ohio, the rest of the states won’t be far behind!!

  22. Re: Paul’s post (#8) — “all this means is that sellers in Ohio will be at a disadvantage or, more likely, will skip eBay altogether” — if you count legislators driving you completely out of business “a disadvantage”. This is one of those laws a bunch of bored legislators came up with to try to rescue their bankrupt State by stealing from anyone they want — who that is, specifically, is to be determined by arbitrary “what’s the definition of ‘a lot’ today?” faux-logic. As if everyone who actually uses eBay is going to take a year off to go to “auctioneer school” — and at what price to start with? eBay provides a big BARTER counter; they’re not an auctioneer. Ohio needs to revolt and recall not only their governor (who is now “asking for a clarification” — oh, joy!), but also whoever else voted for this bunch of nonsense.

    And Anonymous #11 — people do tend to acquiesce to avoid conflict, but if enough people get riled up about something, well . . . remember the “Governator” in California! :-)

  23. Never underestimate the extent to which government officials, when given the opportunity, can be depended upon to do the wrong thing.

    The opportunity, of course, may be traced back to those times when ‘personal regulation’ first became noticeably acceptable to people willing to defer to the concession of rights for what must have been perceived as good causes.

    It appears that this legislation is unlikely to be properly enforceable, but those most apt to be adversely affected are also those most apt to offer full compliance.

    Each of the three branches of government may be expected to encourage the public to defer to the pragmatism of aquiescence. The probability is that they will succeed.

  24. What ever happened to the fact that politicianc were to serve the people, now all they want to do is to empty our pockets to help their rich friends. I am in the opinion that there are no honest people in politics anymore, the higher the office the more crooked they are!

  25. Hope this doesn’t mean that other Northeastern states are thinking about this; whatever one state does, the rest usually follow. These freakin politicians are like a pack of wolves, and obviously feel they smell fresh meat. I agree with Kannie, I hope these Ohio politicians don’ t plan on getting re-elected. Any politicians reading this; take notes!

  26. Re. Kannie’s comment, “don’t these people read what they sign???”. Not too long ago, Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (MI) told a CNN interviewer, “Young man, we read very little of what we sign”.

  27. So… all this means is that sellers in Ohio will be at a disadvantage or, more likely, will skip eBay altogether. Maybe next time they’ll elect people who read that stuff and can figure out that they’re screwing the hand that checks the ballot.

  28. Don’t know about whether it’s revised or admin code, but it’s Senate Bill 99 — here’s a link: . Incidentally, my bro. works for a small, mom-and-pop, purely EBay-ing company out there, and this “might” business really disturbs me. Sure hope these legislators aren’t looking to get re-elected anytime soon . . .

  29. According to , the legislature is working on getting it changed . . . my only problem with that is the stuff passed in the first place — don’t these people read what they sign???

  30. Why would an eBay *seller* require a license? The auctioneer is eBay. The seller, surely, is no different from someone who offers goods for sale through an auction house. Does this mean that, say, an art collector who sells (perhaps frequently) through Sotheby’s would now have to post a bond and go to auction school?

  31. Hmmmm: “…it wasn’t his intention to have this law apply to individual sellers…” WTF??

    Seems to me that if that wasn’t his intention, he could have easily included some language in the legislation that said just that to alleviate the confusion and bad press.

    Sounds like typical politician BS talk to me! Wonder what interest group slid him some $$$ under the table (unregulated, I’m sure!) to get this passed?

    -=kt=-

  32. Next up: lemonade stands and garage sales will also require a business license and $50,000 bond.

    Sometimes I have to wonder what planet politicians live on.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.