eBay restricts AI bots from autonomous shopping.
eBay has updated its user agreement to explicitly prohibit unauthorized AI “buy-for-me” agents and LLM-driven bots from making purchases without human oversight. This strategic move aims to curb the surge of “agentic commerce” while allowing the platform to maintain control over its own emerging AI shopping tools and official partnerships. The policy shift provides eBay with a stronger legal foundation to block aggressive automation from tech competitors like Perplexity and Anthropic.
Points clés
- eBay’s updated User Agreement, effective February 20, 2026, specifically bans LLM-driven bots and end-to-end automated ordering.
- The new policy targets “agentic commerce,” a category of AI tools designed to browse and purchase products on behalf of users.
- OpenAI introduced shopping features to ChatGPT Search in April 2025 and launched “Instant Checkout” by September.
- Perplexity offers a “Buy with Pro” feature, while Amazon has implemented a “Buy For Me” tool for external websites.
- CEO Jamie Iannone hinted that eBay might eventually join OpenAI’s official Instant Checkout program.
- In December, eBay updated its robots.txt file to block bots from Perplexity, Anthropic, and Amazon.
- Google’s shopping bot is notably still allowed to access the site via the robots.txt configuration.
- The policy update does not prohibit eBay from developing its own internal AI shopping experiences.
- Adding specific language to the User Agreement allows eBay to take legal action against violators beyond simple bot-blocking.
À retenir
If you were hoping to spend your golden years letting a chatbot hunt for vintage Hummel figurines while you nap, eBay has some bad news for your digital butler. Apparently, the “magic” of AI shopping is only allowed if the house gets to double-check the robot’s homework (or if the robot belongs to eBay). For the average human, this just means you still have to actually click “buy” yourself—a tragic burden, we know. My advice? Keep your bots on a leash, or eBay’s lawyers might just give your AI “agent” a very real-world cease and desist.
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