eBay Developers Program Q4 2021 Newsletter

Program news

The use of videos in listings has expanded to three new marketplaces

The use of videos in listings is now supported in three new marketplaces, including Germany, Australia, and Canada (English version only). All videos added to listings must be created with the Media API

Marketplace Account Deletion notifications

All developer applications within the eBay Developers Program are required to either subscribe to eBay marketplace account deletion/closure notifications or follow the process to opt out of subscribing to these notifications. Developers can only choose to opt out if they do not store any eBay data for various reasons. See Opting Out of eBay Marketplace Account Deletion/Closure Notifications for more information on opting out.

eBay has started taking actions against all non-compliant applications. Actions include losing access to the Developer Tools, and/or reduced access to all or some APIs.

API updates

The following updates have been made to our APIs over the last few months.

New version of Buy Feed API rolled out

A new version of the Buy Feed API rolled out. This enhanced API allows developers to retrieve the file metadata like the supported marketplace and category along with the information about the available files for download for the various feed types. This allows partners to download the latest available file for a given category and marketplace.

Beta Buy Feed API supports two new marketplaces

The beta Buy Feed API was opened up to the Switzerland and Austria marketplaces.

Multiple updates to the Browse API

The Browse API had multiple releases in Q4. The changes in these releases are summarized below:

• A priorityListing and a watchCount field were added to multiple item and search methods.
• The Browse API was opened up to the Switzerland and Austria marketplaces.
• The following auction-related fields were added to the getItemsresponse and the ‘Compact’ response of getItem: bidCount, currentBidPrice, minimumPriceToBid, reservePriceMet, and uniqueBidderCount.
• The getItem, getItemByLegacyId, and getItemsByItemGroup methods were updated to return seller-defined custom policies through the sellerCustomPolicies container, and the ecoParticipationFee if an eco-participation fee applies to the item.

Support for Extended Producer Responsibility Regulations

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a policy approach under which product producers are given the responsibility of contributing to the treatment and/or disposal of post-consumer products.

Beginning January 1, 2022, sellers on the French marketplace will be required to provide this information for listings in some categories. The sellers will be expected to provide producers’ unique identifiers for the product itself, product packaging, additional shipment package materials, any added paper documentation (such identifiers being obtained from the producers in or first importers into France) and to display the eco-participation fee on certains categories (which is similar to a waste/recycling fee).The following APIs had releases to support Extended Producer Responsibility regulations:

• Trading API
• The new ExtendedProducerResponsibility container in Add/Revise/Relist/Verify methods will be used by sellers to provide the unique identifiers and eco-participation fees for items. For multiple-variation listings, the EcoParticipationFee will need to be provided for each product variation at the variation level.
• Inventory API
• The new extendedProducerResponsibility container in create/update offer methods will be used by sellers to provide the unique identifiers and eco-participation fees for offers.
• Metadata API
• New getExtendedProducerResponsibilityPolicies method returns metadata on the eBay categories that support or require Extended Producer Responsibility-related fields.

Support for Seller-Defined Custom Policies added to multiple APIs

eBay is adding support for sellers to define and attach custom policies to their listings. Although more policy types may get added in the future, the first two policy types available are Take-back policies and Product Compliance policies. The following APIs had releases to support seller-defined custom policies.

• Trading API
• The new CustomPolicies container in Add/Revise/Relist/Verify methods will be used by sellers to provide the unique identifiers of the custom policies. Each listing may have only one TakeBackPolicyID but up to five ProductCompliancePolicyID values.
• Inventory API
• The new takeBackPolicyId field and the productCompliancePolicyIds array in the CustomPolicies container in the create/update offer methods will be used by sellers to provide the unique identifiers of the custom policies. Similar to Trading, each offer may have only one takeBackPolicyId , but up to five productCompliancePolicyIds values.
• Account API
• A new custom_policy resource was added to Account API to create, update, and retrieve custom policies.

Max orders returned reduced for Fulfillment API

For the getOrders method, the maximum number of orders that can be retrieved per page of data is now 200. This value is controlled with the limit query parameter.

Sell Marketing API enhanced to add new/revised listings to campaigns

If using a rules-based Promoted Listing campaign, the seller can include and set the autoSelectFutureInventory field to ‘true’, and  new eBay listings or existing listings that are updated will automatically get added to these Promoted LIsting campaigns if those listings match the defined rules for the campaign.

New requirement for Selling Business Policies in Account API

To use the Selling Business Policies methods (fulfillment, payment, and return) in the Account API , a seller’s account must be opted in to Seling Business Policies. A seller can opt in to Selling Business Policies through My eBay, or by using the optInToProgram method of the Account API. If the seller’s account is not opted in to Selling Business Policies, an error will occur when they attempt to use the Selling Business Policy methods.

getVideo method of Media API now returns video rejection reasons

The getVideo method now returns the rejection reason(s) if a video is rejected. As soon as a video is uploaded with the Media API, the video goes through a moderation process. If a video is rejected, the reason(s) will be returned in the moderation.rejectReasons array. Knowing the reason why a video was rejected will assist the seller in troubleshooting and/or editing the video so it will not be rejected through the moderation process the next time around.

Deprecation and Decommission updates

The following APIs/methods have recently been announced as deprecated. Please see the Deprecation Status page for detailed information.

• GetCategorySpecifics call of the Trading API will be decommissioned on January 31, 2022. Developers can use the getItemAspectsForCategory and fetchItemAspects methods of the Taxonomy API, and the Taxonomy SDK as an alternative approach for retrieving the latest item specifics for eBay categories.
• The Business Policies Management API will also be decommissioned on January 31, 2022. Any developer using this API should make plans to migrate to the Account API to create and manage business policies.
• The Large Merchant Services APIs (Bulk Data Exchange, File Transfer, and Merchant Data) will be decommissioned on April 30, 2022. The Sell Feed API supports the same XML data files that LMS supported, but jobs/tasks and file uploads and downloads are handled by REST methods instead. For more information, see the LMS Migration Guide.

We hope everyone had a great year in 2021, and we are looking forward to working with the community in 2022! Happy holidays!