E-cigarette ads to be banned on Ebay?

[halopunker]

Ya, unfortunately it's been that way for awhile now in the USA. Regardless of what the product is, ebay has the right to deny any product from being sold on their website. Although, it is kind of funny. I did a search on Nicotine and it returned 42 pages of Nicotine gum, patches, and Lozenges. Weird.

[TropicalBob]

Sadly, those are approved products with studied consequences. E-smoking is a great unknown -- a lawyer's delight and a damage-award gold mine if anything goes wrong, ever.

[Mighty Cowphin]

THIS IS A CUT AND PASTE ON WHAT I FOUND about ebay and the ban... Looks like it isn't just Europe folks....

Ebay has banned the sale of the e-cigarette.The e-Cigarette, also know as an electronic cigarette, or e-cig, is a new type of smoking device that is becoming more and more popular by the day. E-cigarettes are an effective method to enjoy nicotine/and smoking without the harmful toxins and chemicals associated with traditional cigarettes.

Because this e cigarette isn't really a cigarette... one would expect that the usual "smoking rules" just dont apply here. But... Ebay claims it violates their alcohol and tobacco policy.

eBay does not permit listings for most alcoholic beverages and tobacco products on their U.S. Web site. This includes cigarettes, cigars, and smokeless tobacco. In addition, non-U.S. members are not allowed to sell alcohol to an eBay member who is located in the United States.

Ebay States:

"Because of various regulatory issues, cigarettes, cigars, and smokeless tobacco products are not allowed on eBay. Please note that these items are not allowed whether or not they contain actual tobacco."

Sounds silly...If it doesn't contain actual tobacco it isn't a cigarette... right?

eeeDictionary. eee
com

Definition of cigarette:
a cylindrical roll of finely cut tobacco cured for smoking, considerably smaller than most cigars and usually wrapped in thin white paper.

And...

eeeWikipedia. eee com it says

An electronic cigarette (or "e-cigarette") is an alternative to smoked tobacco products, such as cigarettes, cigars, or pipes.

Hmmm....

Wonder if I could request my fees back on my cancelled auctions and use this as an argument.

So... in a desperate attempt to beat the system and utilize e-bays advertising power many e-bayers are trying different ways to trick the system, unsuccessfully, I might add. I have been following the different ways ebayers are attempting to list the infamous e-cigarette, so to save you a bit of time and money here are some ways that won't work if you are trying to list e-cigarettes on ebay;

Listing them as the "no nicotine version of the e-cigarette" won't work...

Listing a e-cigarette accessory and trying to sneak in your website address to the actual e-cigarette. Ebay does not allow links to websites that contain e-cigarettes.

Selling "information only" on how to obtain e- cigarettes "not the actual e-cigarette" doesn't work either, even though the e-cigarette is not offered in the auction.

It's really too bad because the e-cigarette offers alot of health benefits to those who smoke traditional cigarettes as it is a healthier way to smoke and though it is not designed as a smoking cessation device it certainly could be used as one, as the e-cigarette offers different levels of nicotine cartridges; high, medium, low and none. This could certainly be used to "ween" one from the smoking habit in my opinion.

So, there you have it, ebay is a dead end when it comes to selling e-cigarettes.

Fortunately all is not lost... If you are interested in more information about the e-cigarette visit: (TAKEN OUT..was web address) quit Smoking or Smoke Healthier - Now There's a Choice.

By: sshinkel

I am not yet able to put up links... but I got this on this site www articledashboard com
/Article/E-bay-Bans-E-cigarette-Sales/872736

[chainy]

I tried to purchase my first e-cig on ebay, but after a day or two the auction was shut down by ebay.

[aidenunder]

EXPLAIN TO THEM THERE IS NO TOBACCO IN ECIGS!!!! got i hate this bulls**t

[davidb]

Yea, I was so confused at first how others were able to post ecigs on ebay and I got banned. Its pretty much a lost cause, but as said before, Ebay can do as they like. Trying to reason with them really does nothing.

[Taelon]

Ebay.de banned, too, nearly all sellers filtered or banned here, even chinese/hk.

So ebay is out for e-cigarettes.

[Taelon]

Ebay downed supplier sends emergency shopping notices with insecure shopping offers

Dear xxxx,

You are receiving this email because you’re a Lallaboutique Customer. Ebay has banned electronic cigarette from the beginning of July. We are forced to take down all our listings. However, we will continue to supply quality electronic cigarette products from our new online store (hxxp://www.lallaboutique.com).

The online store will be ready soon. In the meantime, please check out our new price list at hxxp://www.lallaboutique.com . For ordering, please contact us direct at our hotmail address (xxxx@hotmail.co.uk) with details on items names and amount. We will send you payment link from Paypal.

Your patience and support will be mostly appreciated. We hope to see you soon in our new store!

Best regards,
lallaboutique

Buyers please wait for full security+quality online-shop setup and don't buy this way, remember email from-fields could be forged and more attack scenarios against such trivial insecure onlineshop models are possible.

Never pay or pass credit card data because of mailed requests (Phishing danger)!

The above mail claiming coming from Lallaboutique cannot be authenticated:

Received: by 10.86.95.10 with SMTP id s10cs24846fgb;
Thu, 16 Jul 2009 07:36:12 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.204.112.12 with SMTP id u12mr8493657bkp.159.1247754970848;
Thu, 16 Jul 2009 07:36:10 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path: <info@lallaboutique.com>
Received: from mail.dfsv49.com (mail.dfsv49.com [91.103.216.201])
by mx.google.com with ESMTP id 27si130315bwz.115.2009.07.16.07.36.10;
Thu, 16 Jul 2009 07:36:10 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: neutral (google.com: 91.103.216.201 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of xxx@lallaboutique.com) client-ip=91.103.216.201;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=neutral (google.com: 91.103.216.201 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of xxxx@lallaboutique.com) smtp.mail=info@lallaboutique.com
Received: from host212-183-132-77.uk.access.vodafone.net ([212.183.132.77] helo=[10.97.17.78])
by mail.dfsv49.com with esmtpa (Exim 4.69)
(envelope-from <info@lallaboutique.com>)
id 1MRS3z-00044e-QY

lallaboutique.com != dfsv49.com, this mail could have come from anywhere over this relay, even from a Phisher who wants Your credit card and other personal or payment data.

Sorry Lallaboutique, please get Your shop online securely first to protect Yourself and Your customers from fraud and other internet attacks, thanks.

Taelon