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Program news

We hope everyone is well. We want to take this time to share with you some eBay Developers Program updates from the recent quarter (January - March 2026).

Easy and Free Returns in UK

Starting June 8, Easy and Free Returns for eligible Parts & Accessories listing are being introduced to the eBay UK marketplace. This same policy was introduced last July on the eBay US marketplace. With this policy, Parts & Accessories listings, meeting the following criteria, must offer free returns to buyers with a return period of 30 or 60 days.

  • Fixed price listing in affected Parts & Accessories category
  • Item in New or New – other condition
  • Item price over £10 (excluding postage costs)
  • Item location and buyer location in UK; doesn’t apply to international shipping
  • Item is listed by a business seller

To help offset costs for buyer remorse returns, eBay will be offering sellers a 50% subsidy on return postage labels purchased on eBay. Please note that this subsidy on return postage labels do not apply to returns that fall outside of Easy and Free returns, such as Item not as described returns.

Starting June 8, if non-compliant return policies are used with Add or Revise APIs, a warning will be returned. For these listings, eBay will automatically update the listing to accept returns, offer a 30-day return period, and the seller pays return postage costs to bring the listing in line with the updated policy requirements. These warnings will be converted to blocking errors for Add or Revise APIs starting in August. eBay will also start automatically updating existing listings to be compliant beginning June 8.

Please work with your UK sellers and update your API logic as applicable to make sure their Parts & Accessories listings and Return business policies are compliant with this policy. See the Support for easy returns in Parts and Accessories integration guide topic for specific information on creating compliant return policies through the Trading API or through the Fulfillment Policy object of the Account v1 API.

See the Free returns for parts and accessories page on Seller Centre for more information, the full list of criteria, and a full set of FAQs.

Free selling and Buyer Protection in Australia

Starting in mid-May, eBay will be rolling out free selling to eligible sellers on the eBay Australia marketplace who have sold $25,000 AUD or less during the current rolling 12-month period and who do not have a Pro subscription. Free selling means no standard listing fees and no final value fees charged against sales transactions. Listing upgrade fees such as Subtitle or Reserve Price will still be charged to these sellers if used.

Australian sellers without a Pro subscription do not get access to some selling features like multiple quantity listings, multiple-variation listings, and scheduled payouts. These sellers are also required to use eBay shipping labels, and their buyers will be charged a Buyer Protection fee that the buyer will pay directly to eBay. Buyers will see an “all-in price” throughout the shopping journey, and this price includes item cost plus Buyer Protection fee. At checkout, the buyer will see the Buyer Protection fee as a separate line item in cost breakdown.

Australian sellers whose 12-month sales exceed AUD $25,000 and who do not already have an eBay store will be automatically moved to the new Pro Starter subscription, a store plan with no monthly subscription fee. Australian sellers who already have an eBay store will remain on their current subscription.

For orders subject to a Buyer Protection fee, the following changes were made to order-related APIs to show this new fee and the taxes charged against this fee:

For more information about free selling on the eBay Australia marketplace, see the Free Selling help page.

Condition grading for collectible coins in US

For collectible coin categories, it is essential that coin condition is accurately and explicitly described. If collectible coins are not accurately described, this can directly impact buyer trust, pricing, conversion, and buyer confidence. Today, coin listings on eBay are:

  • Inconsistent and subjective in how condition is described
  • Difficult for buyers to compare across listings
  • Prone to misunderstanding, disputes, and returns

To help solve this problem, eBay is introducing standardized condition grading for collectible coin categories on the eBay US marketplace, similar to what exists today for single trading card categories. This will improve listing quality and comparability and increase buyer trust and confidence. Coins condition grading will be available for the following leaf categories:

  • Coins: US (ID 253)
  • Coins: World (ID 256)
  • Coins: Canada (ID 3377)
  • Coins: Ancient (ID 4733)
  • Coins: Medieval (ID 18466)

Starting early May, new condition descriptor metadata for coin categories will be available through the getItemConditionPolicies method of the Metadata API. There will be new attributes and values for Graded and Raw (ungraded) coins returned under the conditionDescriptors array. For Graded coins, the four new attributes will be Grading company, numeric grade, letter grade, and Certification number. For Raw (ungraded) coins, a custom coin condition must be selected, such as Uncirculated, Extremely Fine to About Uncirculated, Fine to Very Fine, or Below Fine. All of these attributes and their values will have numeric IDs associated with them, and these numeric IDs will need to be passed into the ConditionDescriptors container in the Trading API or the conditionDescriptors array in the Inventory API to provide one or more applicable condition descriptor name-value pairs.

As soon as the new condition descriptor values become available, the Add/Revise API calls will start returning warning messages if condition descriptors are not used for affected categories.

Starting early June, blocking errors will start occurring for Add/Revise API calls if condition descriptors are not used for affected categories.

Starting early July, existing listings in these coin categories are subject to being blocked, hidden, or removed if condition descriptors are not used for affected categories.

Fashion categories size standardization

Currently, the Size item specific for Apparel and Footwear fashion categories allows custom, non-standard size values to be inputted during the listing flow which can reduce search recall, recommendation eligibility, and overall buyer confidence. This results in buyers not being able to find sizes they are searching for (as the non-compliant values are not indexed by search), and also results in sellers' listings performing lower than they should (since buyers cannot find these listings reliably). On the US marketplace, 17–21% of Apparel and Footwear listings contain non-standard sizes, with listings created using APIs contributing a disproportionate share of these issues.

To help alleviate this problem, eBay will start enforcing that only standard size values are used for Apparel and Footwear listings. Developers should check their seller listings to make sure that only standard size values, defined for each leaf category, are used, and provide guidance to sellers who are using non-standard sizes for their inventory.

Starting in June, eBay will automatically start adjusting non-standard values to standard values across all marketplaces. For example, if ‘Small’ is provided as ‘Size’ value, eBay will automatically adjust the value to ‘S’. If a ‘Size’ value is provided that eBay does not recognize, that value will go through but a warning message will be triggered. In addition, size and condition—previously optional—will become required fields for all new listings in fashion categories.

Starting in July, Add and Revise calls that include non-standard/non-compliant or missing size values will be put on hold. Current listings with missing condition information will also be put on hold until the issue is addressed. This means affected listings will not be visible or available for purchase on eBay until the seller resolves the issue.

To make sure standard size values are being used for Apparel and Footwear leaf categories, the getItemAspectsForCategory or fetchItemAspects (plus Taxonomy SDK) of the Taxonomy API should be part of your integration.

Common Charger Directive expanded to laptops

As part of EU's Common Charger Directive (CCD) that went into effect at the end of 2024, sellers in the EU and Northern Ireland listing certain rechargeable devices are expected to provide the following information through product aspects (aka item specifics):

  • Whether or not the item comes with a charger
  • The item's charging power range
  • Whether or not the item is USB-PD compatible

This directive currently applies to handheld mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones, headsets, portable speakers, handheld videogame consoles, e-readers, earbuds, keyboards, mice, and portable navigation systems. Starting April 28, this directive will start applying to laptops as well.

To support this directive, the following changes were made to product aspects for the affected categories:

  • Charger Included aspect added. To satisfy CCD requirements, this aspect must be included and its value is set to either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ based on whether a charger is included or not.
  • Device Charging Range aspect added. To satisfy CCD requirements, this aspect must be included, using a numeric-only range in “min-max” format (e.g., 10-20.5; up to 3 digits and 1 decimal place). Inventory API and Trading API examples are shown below for a device that has a charging range of 10 to 20.5 watts:
"product":{

	   "aspects": {

	      "Device Charging Range": ["10-20.5"]
	
<ItemSpecifics>

	   ...............

	   <NameValueList>

	      <Name>Device Charging Range</Name>

	      <Value>10-20.5</Value>

	   </NameValueList>
  • USB-PD (fast charging) aspect value added to the Features aspect. This aspect value should be included as one of the Features values if the product comes with a charger that meets the USB Power Delivery standard.

See the Common Charger Directive integration guide topic for more information, including more examples of how these aspect name-value pairs (aka item specifics) are passed in through the Inventory API and Trading API.

See the EU Common Charger Directive help page for more information on the directive and how it affects sellers.

New CPSC requirements for imports into US

There are upcoming U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) eFiling requirements that will take effect on July 8, 2026.

Under these new rules, certain consumer products imported into the U.S. (including children’s products, apparel, and other regulated goods) must have product safety documentation submitted electronically to U.S.Customs before entry. While sellers have been required to provide this documentation since 2008, the new requirement introduces mandatory pre-shipment electronic filing.

These documents include:

  • General Certificate of Conformity (GCC)
  • Children’s Product Certificate (CPC)

The documents are attached to listings using eBay APIs in the following manner:

  1. Use the createDocument method and then the uploadDocument method of the Media API to upload a document to the seller’s account. Alternatively, the createDocumentFromUrl, method can be used where a URL to the document is provided and eBay will download that document and then upload the document to the seller’s account. For both approaches, you will need to set the appropriate documentType value, which are either GENERAL_CERTIFICATE_OF_CONFORMITY or CHILDRENS_PRODUCT_CERTIFICATE.
  2. If using the Inventory API, use a documentId field in the documents array of a createOffer method to attach a document to a listing, or if using the Trading API, use the Document.DocumentID field of an Add or Revise call

For more detailed information on uploading documents and attaching them to listings, see the Managing documents topic in the Sell Integration Guide.

Key considerations

  • This requirement applies to certain products imported into the U.S., regardless of the eBay marketplace where the listing is created.
  • Starting July 8, 2026, sellers may be required to submit safety information to their carrier before shipping. For listings using an eBay International Shipping program or Speedpak shipping service, compliance documents attached to listings will be transmitted to shipping partners.
  • Missing or incorrect compliance data may result in shipment delays, holds, or refusal at the U.S. border.

If you have not integrated the Media API into your listing management workflows, we highly recommend doing so in advance of the July 8th enforcement date

Below are direct links to the CPSC website that has a list of products that are subject to requiring GCC and CPC documentation:

API updates

The following updates have been made to our APIs this quarter.

New seller user preferences methods added

Seller user preferences methods were added to the Account v2 API. The getUserPreferences and setUserPreferences methods are the REST API equivalents of the GetUserPreferences and SetUserPreferences calls in the Trading API.

Below are just some of the key differences between the Trading API call and the new getUserPreferences method:

  • The default behavior of getUserPreferences is to retrieve all seller preferences, and there is no longer a need to include a boolean field for each preference set you want to retrieve. The getUserPreferences method does have a fieldgroups query parameter that supports multiple comma-delimited values.where a user can pick and choose which preference sets to retrieve.
  • The ShowSellerPaymentPreferences boolean field in the Trading API call is repurposed and renamed to shippingCarrierRatePreferences as legacy payment method preferences are no longer applicable with eBay-managed payments, but FedEx and UPS shipping rate options still apply.
  • The ShowSellerProfilePreferences will be migrated, but only the Business Policies opt-in boolean field will be returned and not individual business policies. The Account v1 API can be used to retrieve individual business policies

Below are just some of the key differences between the Trading API call and the new setUserPreferences method:

New document type and new URL field in Media API

The Media API was updated with a new SAFETY_TEST_LAB_REPORTS document type in the DocumentTypeEnum type. In the context of CE or UL certification, a Safety Test Lab Report refers to the formal test documentation issued by an accredited testing laboratory that demonstrates a product has been evaluated against specific safety standards.

The methods of the image resource were updated with a maxDimensionImageUrl field, which is the URL to access the maximum dimension version of the listing image.

Metadata API updates

The following two updates were made to the Metadata API:

  • New getMinimumListingPricePolicies method that retrieves the minimum start price for auction listings, the minimum sale price for fixed-price listings, and the minimum percentage value that a Buy It Now price must be above the minimum start price for the same listing. This method is a replacement for the ListingStartPriceDetails container that is returned in GeteBayDetails call.
  • Added reservePriceAllowed field to the getCategoriesPolicies method that indicates if a leaf category supports a Reserve Price for auction listings in that category.

Order earnings methods added to Finances API

Three order earnings methods were added to the Finances API. The getOrderEarnings method retrieves order earnings for all orders generated during a specific date range, the getOrderEarningsById method retrieves order earnings for all orders generated from a specific eBay listing, and the getOrderEarningsSummary method retrieves composite gross sales amounts, expense amounts, net order earning amounts, and total buyer refund amounts across a specific date range.

The getOrderEarnings and getOrderEarningsById methods return detailed order-level financial data, including order earnings, gross amount, expenses, buyer refunds, shipping costs, and tax amounts.

Note: These methods are currently only available to US, China, and Hong Kong-based sellers selling on the eBay US marketplace.

New getBillingActivities method in the Finances API

A new getBillingActivities method was added to the Finances API. This method is the REST API equivalent of the GetAccount call of the Trading API. This new method retrieves seller fees and credits, and there are filters to retrieve billing activities by order ID, listing ID, and/or date range.

New promotions feed type added to Buy Feed v1 API

A new PROMOTION_V2 feed type was added to the Buy Feed v1 API. This feed type provides a daily snapshot of live discounts and their currently associated items, and returns a set of fields used to describe the discounts. This new feed type expands upon the original PROMOTION feed type, and support multi-offer promotions with seller and category-level targeting.

Note: The output for this feed type is AVRO.

New Promoted Listing metrics in reports

The Promoted Listing reports of Sell Marketing API was updated with the following new metrics:

  • The daily_budget_payout_currency annotation key has been added. The campaign_id dimension key must be used in conjunction with this annotation key.
  • The avg_cost_per_sale_listingsite_currency metric key has been added. This metric key is applicable for report types that support the avg_cost_per_sale metric.
  • The cost_per_click_listingsite_currency metric key has been added. This metric key is applicable for report types that support the cost_per_click metric.
  • The cpc_avg_cost_per_sale_listingsite_currency metric key has been added. This metric key is applicable for report types that support the cpc_avg_cost_per_sale metric.

eBay deprecation and decommission updates

This section is just a summary of the deprecation and decommission activity. Be sure to visit https://developer.ebay.com/develop/get-started/api-deprecation-status page for full details.

Decommissioned APIs/Operations/Fields

The following APIs/operations/fields were decommissioned in Q1:

API

Operation(s)/Field(s)

Replacement(s)

Post-Order API

20 Return, 5 Inquiry, 3 Case Management, 1 Cancellation method

None

Trading API

GetVeROReportStatus, GetVeROReasonCodeDetails,

VeROReportItems

VeRO API

eBayPlus, eBayPlusEligible

None

Compliance API

All

None

Sell Marketing API

setupQuickCampaign, launchCampaign

None

Deprecated API Fields

The following API fields were marked as deprecated in Q1:

  • eBayPlus field used by AddItem family of calls in Trading API
  • eBayPlusEligible field returned by GetItem

Scheduled for decommission in Q2 2026

The following table summarizes the operations that will be decommissioned. See the https://developer.ebay.com/develop/get-started/api-deprecation-status page for the full list of Post-Order API methods being decommissioned.

API

Operation(s)/ Field(s)

Date

Replacement(s)

Trading API

GetCategories

4/15

Taxonomy API for category taxonomy and Metadata API for site-level metadata. See GetCategories Migration Guide for more information.

Product Metadata API

All methods

4/27

The compatibilities methods of the Metadata API.

Product API

getProductCompatibilities

4/27

getProductCompatibilities method of the Metadata API.

Trading API

GetCategoryFeatures

5/04

Multiple methods of the Metadata API. See GetCategoryFeatures migration guide for more information.

We hope everyone had a great start to 2026, and we are looking forward to working with the community the rest of the year!