eBay announces knife ban in UK & Ireland

Mark Lewis, Country Manager for eBay (UK), has announced that eBay intends to ban trade in all knives, with the exception of cutlery knives, on both its UK and Ireland websites.

“Trust is the engine of our business and it is our duty to provide a safe and secure marketplace for our members. The security measures we already have in place are designed to make sure that only legal knives have been offered for sale by UK and Irish sellers on our UK and Ireland sites and we are satisfied with how these measures have been working in both the UK and Ireland.

“We have a good track record of leading the online industry in going above and beyond what the law requires in a number of areas such as fighting counterfeits or banning the sale of ivory worldwide. Similarly, our policies on weapons and knives go above and beyond the legal requirements set out by the Home Office. However, the laws surrounding the sales of knives are extremely complex and so we have decided that the best way to protect our members and achieve the safety guarantees they have come to expect from us is to remove and ban all knives, with the exception of cutlery knives, from our UK and Ireland sites.

“eBay’s marketplace structure means that it will take time to work with our sellers to remove the knives currently for sale and prevent new listings from being posted. However, we are committed to achieving this as quickly as possible.”