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Program news

We hope everyone is well. We want to take this time to share with you some updates that have occurred within the eBay Developers Program over the last quarter (April - June 2024). 

New GPSR schema set to launch in July

The General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) goes into effect on December 13, 2024, and during July, eBay will launch new API endpoints and elements to support all GPSR requirements. 

See the GPSR Seller Center page for more information about GPSR requirements.

The following sections summarize the GPSR requirements and the new API endpoints and schema to support these requirements.

Product Manufacturers and Responsible Persons

By December 13, 2024, sellers operating in, or shipping to, EU-based countries, or Northern Ireland, will be required to provide contact details for the product manufacturer. The seller will be expected to provide the mailing address and email address of the manufacturer. A Manufacturer container will be added to the AddItem family of calls in the Trading API and to the Offer-related methods of the Inventory API to support providing this information.

If the product manufacturer is not based in an EU country, the seller must also provide the mailing address and email address of at least one Responsible Person who is based in the EU or Northern Ireland. A Responsible Persons array will be added to the AddItem family of calls in the Trading API and to the Offer-related methods of the Inventory API to support providing this information.

A new getRegulatoryPolicies method will be added to the Metadata API that will indicate whether Manufacturer and/or Responsible Persons are recommended or required for listing categories on a specific marketplace. The new getRegulatoryPolicies method will also indicate whether hazardous material labels, energy efficiency labels, and product safety labels will be recommended or required for listing categories on a specific marketplace.

Deprecation of Economic Operator containers

With the introduction of the Manufacturer container and the Responsible Persons array, the EconomicOperator container in the Trading API and the economicOperator container in the Inventory API will be deprecated. Developers/sellers will be expected to use the Manufacturer container and/or the Responsible Persons array instead.

Product Safety pictograms and statements

Another GPSR requirement will be providing Product Safety pictograms and statements where applicable. This could include products like toys/games with small pieces that could pose a choking hazard to children. To support providing this information, a Product Safety container will be added to the AddItem family of calls in the Trading API and to the Offer-related methods of the Inventory API. This Product Safety container will have a Pictograms and Statements container to add one or more pictograms and statements to listings.

A new getProductSafetyLabels method will be added to the Metadata API that will return the alphanumeric IDs associated with specific pictograms and statements associated with different listing categories on different eBay marketplaces. These alphanumeric IDs will be needed when adding pictograms and statements to listings through the Trading API and Inventory API.

Adding Regulatory documents to listings

Three new methods will be added to the Media API to support the upload of Regulatory documents to a seller’s account. The seller will then use the new Documents array in the AddItem family of calls in the Trading API and to the Offer-related methods of the Inventory API to add Regulatory documents to listings. Sellers must provide eBay-generated Document IDs that are created once a document is successfully uploaded using the new Media API endpoints.

Regulatory document types include, but are not limited to: 

  • User Guides or Manuals
  • Troubleshooting Guides
  • Installation Instructions
  • Safety Data Sheet

The new Media API endpoints will support multiple languages used in one document. 

Rebranding of marketing-related products

In July, eBay marketing-related products will be rebranded. This includes Promoted Listings campaigns and Item Promotions.

For Promoted Listings:

  • Promoted Listings Advanced will be referred to as Promoted Listings with priority campaign strategy
  • Promoted Listings Standard will be referred to as Promoted Listings with general campaign strategy
  • Offsite Ads will be referred to as Promoted Offsite

Item Promotions will be referred to as Discounts on Seller Hub and eBay help pages.

Other than tweaks to field descriptions to reflect the new product names, none of these name changes will have an effect on endpoints in the Sell Marketing API.

See the 2024 Summer Seller Update story for more information on changes and enhancements to marketing and promotional tools.

eBay Vault transitioning to PSA Vault

As part of a partnership with Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), the eBay Vault is transitioning to the PSA Vault. 

Other than the change in name and being managed by PSA, minimal change is expected, and we will communicate about any changes that may happen.

For details and FAQs on the transition, see the PSA Vault Intro and FAQs. For the latest information on how the PSA Vault works, see the How the PSA Vault works with eBay help page.

Catalog products now required in Category ID 173651

For eBay Motors U.S., listings in the Auto Performance Tuning Devices Software category (ID 173651) will require an eBay catalog product. Requiring an eBay catalog product for this category will help eliminate the listing of illegal emissions control defeat devices. See eBay’s Emissions control defeat devices policy for more information.

In the Trading API, an eBay product ID (ePID) can be passed in through the ProductListingDetails.ProductReferenceID field of an Add/Revise Item call. In the Inventory API, an ePID can be passed in through product.epid field of inventory item object.

Change to transaction IDs

Historically, in legacy APIs, the transaction ID value for sales generated from auction listings has been ‘0’ since only one sale can occur with auction listings. Starting in July, non-zero transaction IDs will start being returned for auction listings. This change keeps transaction IDs consistent across all sale formats and will enable easier transition to our modern APIs. 

Developers should confirm that their application(s) are able to handle this change without any issues.

API updates

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

Sell Marketing API updates

  • Smart targeting concept was introduced in Promoted Listings Advanced (PLA) campaigns (a.k.a. Promoted Listings with priority campaign strategy). Smart targeting campaigns are easy to set up and automatically optimize ad campaign settings and handle the bidding and targeting for the seller. Using the createCampaign method, sellers can now create smart targeting PLA campaigns by setting the campaignTargetingType value to SMART and specifying the max cost per click they are willing to pay through the maxCpc.amount container. 

    Sellers are also able to update the max cost per click of their smart targeting campaign through the maxCpc.amount container of the updateBiddingStrategy method.

    An inclusive campaign_targeting_types filter was added to getCampaigns to retrieve only Smart or only Manual PLA campaigns in the response.

  • Auction listings can now be added as a part of Promoted LIsting Standard campaigns (a.k.a. Promoted Listings with general campaign strategy).

New PROMOTION feed in Buy Feed v1 API

A new PROMOTION feed is now available for Buy Feed v1 API consumers. This feed type provides details of active Item Promotions and the list of items that are a part of each promotion.

Buy APIs now support PL affiliate links 

The Browse API and Buy Feed Beta API have been updated to return eBay Partner Network (ePN) affiliate links for the Poland marketplace. These ePN affiliate links are returned in the itemAffiliateWebUrl field of the Browse API and in the itemAffiliateWebUrl field of the Buy Feed Beta API.

Catalog API enabled for Italy

The Catalog API has been enabled for the Italy marketplace. To search the Italy marketplace, a user must set the value of the required X-EBAY-C-MARKETPLACE-ID header to EBAY_IT.

New Regulatory Operating Fee for orders

A new Regulatory Operating Fee was added for all orders in the UK, Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and Switzerland. This fee is calculated as a fixed percentage rate (0.35%) of the total amount of the sale, including shipping costs and taxes. 

This fee will be shown in the getTransactions method of the Finances API and in the GetAccount call of the Trading API.

For more information on why eBay is charging this fee, see the Regulatory Operating Fee help topic in the eBay UK Seller Centre.

Retention time of videos reduced to 30 days

The retention time of videos uploaded to a seller’s account has been reduced from 365 days to 30 days. This retention time only applies to videos that are not currently associated with any active listings. The Media API can be used to upload videos to a seller’s account. 

eBay Deprecation and Decommission updates

The following APIs/methods/fields are deprecated, and are scheduled for decommission. Please see the Deprecation Status page for detailed information.

The following APIs/methods/fields have been decommissioned during this quarter:

We hope everyone has had a great first half, and we are looking forward to working with the community during the rest of 2024!