Don’t artificially push up prices of your goods on eBay or you could be fined or even end up in jail

Paul Barrett has been fined £3,500 and sentenced to 250 hours of community service after artificially pushing up the price of items he was selling on the online auction site, eBay. The practice is known as shill bidding. He was successfully prosecuted in the Crown Court under the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations and Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations. Both laws were introduced in 2008 to implement European Union Directives that sought to stop misleading business practices. Mr Barrett may have got off lucky in that the Regulations provide for prison sentences.

Trading Standards has issued a stark warning to users of auction sites like eBay: ‘If they shill bid or encourage family and friends to place fake bids to push up prices artificially, they too face prosecution.’