A Letter to eBay: Possible Unlawful Boycott of Israel and Alleged Discriminatory Price Gouging

Ebay headquarters in San Jose, California. Photo: WikiCommons.

StandWithUs, National Jewish Advocacy Center, and Zachor Legal Institute wrote to eBay, noting that eBay consumers have brought to our attention significant concerns regarding eBay’s business practices, including allegations that eBay may be discriminating against consumers trying to ship goods from the United States to Israel in violation of anti-boycott laws and international treaties. We requested that eBay provide clarification, investigate the allegations set forth in the letter, and initiate relevant remedial action.

April 15, 2024

Jamie Iannone,
CEO of eBay

Via Email: jamie@ebay.com

Re: Possible Unlawful Boycott of Israel and Alleged Discriminatory Price Gouging

Dear Mr. Iannone,

We write to you from StandWithUs, an international, non-profit organization with the mission of supporting Israel and combating antisemitism; National Jewish Advocacy Center, a nonprofit organization committed to our mission to advocate for the Jewish nation and the Jewish State; and Zachor Legal Institute, a non-profit civil rights organization combating antisemitism.

eBay consumers have brought to our attention significant concerns regarding eBay’s business practices, including allegations that eBay may be discriminating against consumers trying to ship goods from the United States to Israel in violation of anti-boycott laws and international treaties. We request that you provide clarification, investigate the allegations set forth below, and initiate relevant remedial action.

First, eBay customers have notified us of multiple discrepancies in eBay’s activities regarding trade to Israel as compared to other foreign countries since October 7, 2023, when thousands of Palestinian terrorists and armed citizens led by Hamas slaughtered more than a thousand civilians in Israel and took over 200 hostages into Gaza. Starting on October 7 until a recent date, eBay blocked Israel as a shipping destination. Accordingly, sales could not be processed when the final address selected was Israel. The following homepage notification was displayed:

Expect interruptions to Israel service. Listings temporarily no longer show shipping availability. Due to the current events, many major shipping carriers around the world are experiencing interruptions in service to Israel. As a result, many eBay listings will no longer show shipping availability temporarily to buyers with shipping addresses in Israel.

Further, when a merchant offering an item with worldwide availability was based in the United States, where eBay’s in-house, default service option “eBay International Shipping” is used, consumers requesting Israel as the final destination received the message:

Unfortunately, shipping to your location is not available at this time.

This did not appear to be the case when the merchant was based outside of the United States, for example in Germany, Canada, Australia, or the United Kingdom, where the same or similar item for purchase was able to successfully deliver to Israel via a different non-eBay administered service. And from our understanding, major international shipment companies and rival e- commerce sites, like USPS, Amazon, and Ali Express, have never blocked service to Israel and have only faced minimal delays, if any.

In short, it appears that eBay’s US-based operations — and not in other countries — have been refusing to ship items to Israel, while simultaneously engaging in trade with other countries, possibly participating in a boycott in violation of US law. Our understanding is that within the last few weeks, eBay has since lifted this complete ban, however a standardized message that there may be delays in shipping still appears for those with Israel set as the destination.

Furthermore, consumers requesting Israel as a shipping destination are facing sky-high shipping and handling costs (“costs”) from the same “eBay International Shipping” service that no other country appears to be subject to. From our analysis, these costs — irrespective of and not proportional to the cost of the product itself — seem to be consistently in the $60-70 range, which is two to three times greater than when selecting any other applicable country destination. When shipping service options “Standard International Shipping” or “USPS” are available, the costs for delivering the same items are significantly less than eBay’s own shipping service. When shipping originates from a non-US location, the costs do not seem to vary significantly based on destination.

As you may be aware, anti-Israel boycotts not only violate numerous Federal anti-boycott laws, but also legislation in over 30 US states, many of which house your offices, employees, and interstate business operations. The US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security defines the term “boycott” as referring “to economic coercion associated with such tactics as refusing to engage in business transactions or conditioning business transactions on agreements that a party will not do business with another party or country.”

The past six months of eBay’s refusal to service consumers in Israel from the US. at all or on terms equal to other countries likely constituted such a boycott, regardless of if one has been publicly declared. And now, whether eBay is intentionally acting in furtherance of the same perceived boycott tactic or is merely using price gouging as a means to “legally” dissuade customers from engaging with Israel, this discriminatory conduct is potentially in violation of the same set of laws. This extant practice requires immediate clarification.

We therefore request that you investigate this alleged non-compliance and engage in a thorough and transparent review of your policies to ensure adherence to Federal and state anti-boycott legislation and regulations. Thank you for your prompt attention to this timely and critical matter. We look forward to a response to this letter by April 30, 2024.

Sincerely,

Roz Rothstein Marc Greendorfer Mark Goldfeder

CEO and Co-Founder President CEO and Director

StandWithUs Zachor Legal Institute National Jewish Advocacy Center