Blue Banner

[recped]

I came across a listing on .com from a China based seller who ships from China. It does not have a blue banner, in fact it has exactly what most Canadian sellers want (those who are shipping direct).

Looking at the same listing on .ca

Obviously they are shipping DDP to the US and DDU to Canada. My question would be why can a seller from China (shipping to the US) be able to have eBay add the tag lines of all duties/tariffs/fees are prepaid but Canadian sellers shipping DDP to the US can't. We get stuck with the blue banner of death or the slightly altered version that has been showing up on some listings (both state that buyers "WILL" have to pay tariffs).

devon@ebay 

[marnotom!]

I don't think I've seen the blue banner for about a week now, but there are still similar messages being inserted into Canadian listings.

I do find it interesting that the shipping method on the .com version is described as "Expedited Shipping" (US domestic) while on the .ca version it's described as "Expedited International Shipping."  I wonder if what triggers the message is the choice of flat-rate shipping method in conjunction with the seller's location?

[snoopwiz]

Excellent catch Mr. Recped. 

What a positive difference that could/would make on our businesses. 

Are you a betting person?

[john_koenig99]

I think the answer is pretty obvious. EBay tends to favour certain sellers from that region of the planet.

[dinomitesales]

Last week eBay started sending out messages to select International sellers listing on dotCom asking them if they wanted to agree to a program that basically says "If you agree to this, we will remove the banner from your listings, but if something goes wrong you lose everything".

Here's what it looks like, posted in one of the Canadian reselling Facebook groups:

I suspect the Chinese seller in question has agreed to these terms from eBay. It's possible that eBay offered this solution to Chinese sellers first based on the volume they do on the platform.

[recped]

Those are pretty brutal terms, especially the Transaction Defect potential.

That said the risk is actually extremely low.

[regs43]

I recieved the email this week about the Pilot program. I list on .ca so its useless as its for .com listings only.

Ii would also NOT agree to the terms becasue they are awful, and I have no control over what customs is going to reandomly do (my stuff is tariff free right now, but what about tomorrow lol Who knows with the admin in the USA)

[recped]

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@regs43 wrote:

I list on .ca so its useless as its for .com listings only.

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I missed that part, completely ridiculous!

[byto253]

At least the wording about potential import fees has been changed to "may" and the blue banner is gone.

"International shipment of items may be subject to customs processing and additional charges".  That removes the main kneecaping problems. It also lowers the incremental benefit of the pilot progam.

I am not going to bash eBay for the pilot, as you can opt out,  and they are looking at an option to accommodate those who can handle DDP without EIS.   If you are only shipping CP/Zonos or Stallion/Chitchats this is something to think about.

The refund and defect is harsh.  Unfortunately, I think the rationale is that there always some people that will try to have it both ways, opt in then ship by UPS, etc. because it is cheaper.   

Still question if Customs decides that you are steel in your parcel or disagrees on the Zonos info.  Do they send those back to sender?

[cottagewoman]

This a very hot and nasty potato as far as I can see. A CBP agent can decide that the cold oatmeal he ate in the morning means every package with the recipient name having the letter O in it will be closely scrutinized and every possible tariff will be levied against it even if it doesn't justify it legally, and nobody can do anything about it.

[mrdutch1001]

and thems the joys of continuing to ship to the USA...

and sooner or later more Canadian sellers will figure it out>that shipping to the USA with so much uncertainty under the conditions of a felonous leader and a very corrupt, malicious administration is no longer worth the dance...

[marnotom!]

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@cottagewoman wrote:

This a very hot and nasty potato as far as I can see. A CBP agent can decide that the cold oatmeal he ate in the morning means every package with the recipient name having the letter O in it will be closely scrutinized and every possible tariff will be levied against it even if it doesn't justify it legally, and nobody can do anything about it.

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How would that happen when we’re expected to ship items to the US DDP?

[regs43]

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@marnotom! wrote:

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@cottagewoman wrote:

This a very hot and nasty potato as far as I can see. A CBP agent can decide that the cold oatmeal he ate in the morning means every package with the recipient name having the letter O in it will be closely scrutinized and every possible tariff will be levied against it even if it doesn't justify it legally, and nobody can do anything about it.

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How would that happen when we’re expected to ship items to the US DDP?

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Any Package can be pulled over at any time, duties pre paid or not and looked at. If they decide at the border what you have in the package doesnt match the tariffs you pre paid (or didnt with a courrier) isnt what you decalred .... good luck. If you opted into that pilot program and that happened your SOL with ebay as well on that sale lol

[lacemaker3]

@recped,

To answer your original question about the seller from China shipping DDP to the USA:  

eBay USA requires many items being shipped from China to use SpeedPAK, and has done for several years. This is an exclusive-to-eBay shipping service, facilitated by Orange Connex, where the seller is required to pay the import costs when they purchase the shipping label. So they are included in the purchase price, or shipping cost.

Here's the explanation from the POV of a US buyer:

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/shipping-delivery/changing-delivery-address-method/international-purchases-shipping?id=4057#section3

More general, global information about SpeedPAK ... it is available for shipments to other countries than the USA, but the compliance ratio (how many packages the seller needs to use SpeedPAK for) is only 40% for packages to Canada.

https://export.ebay.com/sea-en/policies/direct-shipping-policy/

[recped]

I know about SpeedPAK but at this time the same is true of anyone shipping via the postal system from any country, they are all DDP.

All sellers should be getting the same treatment if they are using the postal system regardless of their location.

[lacemaker3]

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@recped wrote:

I know about SpeedPAK but at this time the same is true of anyone shipping via the postal system from any country, they are all DDP.

All sellers should be getting the same treatment if they are using the postal system regardless of their location.

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With postal services, the major problem appears to be that eBay USA does not accept that international postal shipments to the USA valued up to US$800 will always be DDP. In this page, they state that "USPS will notify you by mail—you’ll pay at pickup", which is not true for items valued less than US$800.

https://pages.ebay.com/tariffs/

For packages valued more than US$800, (which were not eligible for de minimis exemption), USPS often did/does not even ask for the duty payment, although their website says they can/will collect it.

USPS does not have the resources to collect duty for all the incoming packages that are valued below US$800. The requirement for DDP shipping was the only thing that made eliminating the de minimis exemption possible in August 2025.

devon@ebay, would you please acknowledge that eBay USA is misunderstanding this situation? The page linked to above gives inaccurate information for international packages being shipped to the USA, unless the package is valued at more than US$800. Please make the appropriate team aware that they are incorrect, and they need to fix this.

eBay needs to faciliate (and require) international sellers to use DDP shipping services to the USA, becaue thatt is what the Executive Order 14324 and USCBP now require. eBay needs to be compliant with the new USA regulations.

Continuing to allow, and even facilitate, international sellers using out-dated DDU shipping services is causing a lot of unhappiness (and monetary loss) to eBay buyers on eBay.com, when they find out a few days before delivery that the courier has prepaid the duty for them as a "courtesy" (which they were warned about), and also charged a large brokerage fee, which they were not made aware of when they made the purchase.

[john_koenig99]

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@lacemaker3 wrote:

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eBay needs to faciliate (and require) international sellers to use DDP shipping services to the USA, becaue thatt is what the Executive Order 14324 and USCBP now require. eBay needs to be compliant with the new USA regulations.

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No, what they have now is eIS. Which makes sense because if the buyer's responsibility to pay for tariffs, duties, taxes, etc. It's not the seller's responsibility. 

[lacemaker3]

 @john_koenig99,

For shipments into the USA, eIS is only available for sellers in Canada. The Global Shipping Programme (GSP) from the UK works similarly. That leaves a lot of international sellers who have to ship by other services. Even in Canada, a lot of sellers don't want to use eIS, are not eligible for it, or have items to sell that are not eligible for eIS.

eBay needs to be compliant with the new USA regulations for all international sellers, not just Canadian and UK sellers who use eIS or GSP.

What I mean by facilitating DDP shipments, is that eBay should implement a way to collect the duty at checkout (similar to collecting VAT for UK and EU shipments), and remit it to the seller so they can use it to pay the tariffs. Once the seller has purchased a DDP shipping label, and the item has been shipped to the USA, then the duty becomes non-refundable. If the item is never shipped, then the duty would be refundable. If the item is eventually returned (exported from the USA again), or is lost after it enters the USA, then the buyer can file a drawback with USCBP to recover the cost of the duty that was paid.

eBay is already calculating how much tariff is due for eIS shipments from Canada, and GSP shipments from the UK. So they already have that algorithm written. If a listing does not have the information needed to calculate the duty in the item specifics, then it would not be available for shipping to the USA (which the GSP did for a while as they developed the algorithm to calculate the duty).

devon@ebay 

[cottagewoman]

CBP officers have total and complete control of every imported item. They can (and do) reclassify HTS codes. They can question and change country of origin at will. They can question every single aspect of any item entering, change it, assign any duties they see fit via any changes they decide to make. No questions asked, at the time of entry they have total and complete authority with no recourse available.

[cottagewoman]

An additional action CBP may take is to refuse informal entry of any package if they question the value as declared. They will then require it to be entered as a full formal entry, charge appropriate duties on what they determine is the actual value, and hit you with another 130$ USD bill. This was more of an issue in the de minimis Days. But now I have information from a local CBS provider that it can happen if they decide the HTS code skirts section 232 steel/aluminum tariffs. Oh and the shipper may get banned. Given this situation I'll stick with eIS and let them take all the risks, hopefully until someone sees sense that this is all a massive waste of time and money.