eBay may have restricted access for AI agents to listings on the platform
eBay appears to have restricted third-party AI agents' access to listings: Meta Muse has stopped collecting links and product data. The company has not confirmed the new restrictions.
Meta Muse can no longer browse listings on eBay or collect product details for users, including prices, shipping, and condition. Previously, the agent could daily curate items like watches and send links to suitable offers.
A user first noticed the issue, and The Verge later reproduced it with different search queries. In some cases, Muse redirected users to third-party websites that duplicated eBay's listings instead of eBay's own pages.
eBay's user agreement already prohibits tools like agents that purchase items without human verification and bots based on large language models. However, until recently, Muse could browse the catalog and provide found offers.
Sybille St. Arromand, a spokesperson for eBay, did not directly answer whether the company had introduced new restrictions. She stated that the platform selectively regulates access for third-party services and has previously restricted it in cases of unauthorized data collection or training models on eBay's data. According to her, the company is discussing potential collaborations with partners and evaluating how agents can help new customers find products.
Retailers have varying attitudes toward such tools. Amazon completely blocks external agents, Target's access may work in some cases and fail in others, while Shopify has allowed agents to browse catalogs and make purchases on behalf of users. Meanwhile, the scale of agent-based commerce remains unclear: services like Uber and DoorDash have reported only a small number of orders through third-party agents.
