eBay Australia rolled out the increased buyer protection plan it had promised users when it initially announced it was moving to a PayPal-only marketplace. It had planned to roll out the ban on all payment methods except for PayPal on June 17, but Australian government regulators told eBay last week to hold off on implementing the policy.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said it believes consumers are in the best position to determine which payment method to use.

eBay reacted on Friday by announcing its plans to challenge the ACCC draft decision, and told users it would institute the policy on July 15 instead of June 17.

The Australian IT website reported that eBay Australia sent a "strongly worded" letter this week to users warning that failure to comply with the new policy would result in an immediate removal of product listings and repeatedly emphasizing the deadline.

Sellers are caught in the middle, having to decide now whether to make the investment in time and resources to make listings compliant with a policy that eBay promises will go into effect next month.

eBay increased the PayPal Buyer Protection program to $20,000, effective June 17, 2008. The protection applies to certain transactions, terms are set out on the PayPal website (https://www.paypal.com/au/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/ua/policy_buyer_complaint-outside).

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/au/200806171516542.html