eBay Restriction Identifier
eBay does at least eight different things to an account, and they need different answers. Six questions to work out which one you are looking at, before you write a word to eBay.
Six questions
0 of 6 answeredAnswer what you can. Nothing is sent anywhere, and you can skip anything you are unsure about.
You usually get very few attempts
On the heavier restrictions eBay does not owe you a second reading, and a wrong first appeal is the most expensive mistake in this whole area. Recovering these is what we do, and we publish the eBay messages from cases we work so you can check the reasoning rather than trust it.
Every restriction type, and what clears each one
Most eBay suspension advice assumes eBay does one thing. It does at least eight, and treating one like another is the costliest mistake in this area.
MC999 hard restriction
Blocks. Selling privileges, and listings normally come down with them.
Clears with. Showing you found the root cause and closed it off for good. This is a decision eBay has already reached, not a question it is asking.
MC011 abnormal activity
Blocks. Selling, and often payouts alongside it. Your order performance may be perfectly healthy.
Clears with. Proof. Who you are, where your stock comes from, and that the activity is real. It is a risk flag rather than a performance one.
Linked account restriction
Blocks. This account, because of a connection eBay has drawn to another one.
Clears with. Establishing what the connection is and whether the other account is actually yours, before you appeal anything.
Policy violation notice
Blocks. Usually one listing and a warning on a first breach. Escalation is where accounts are lost.
Clears with. Fixing the practice across the whole catalogue rather than the single listing eBay happened to catch.
VeRO or intellectual property removal
Blocks. The listings named in the complaint. Enough removals feed account level enforcement.
Clears with. Settling it with the rights owner, who filed the complaint. eBay acts on the notice and does not judge who is right.
Seller performance restriction
Blocks. Search placement first, then fees, then Promoted Listings. Restrictions follow if it persists.
Clears with. Repairing the defect rate, the case count and the late shipment rate before the next monthly evaluation.
Account verification hold
Blocks. Often selling and buying at the same time, and it can land a day after your first listing.
Clears with. Identity and address documents. These clear fastest of all, because eBay wants paperwork rather than persuasion.
Payout hold or reserve
Blocks. Nothing about selling. eBay holds the money while you carry on trading.
Clears with. Delivery confirmation and time. Treat it as a cash flow problem rather than an account problem, unless it lands beside a selling restriction.
Unpaid fees or a payment problem
Blocks. Selling, until the balance is settled. The dullest reason on the list and one of the most common.
Clears with. Paying it, often the same day. Check the payment method on file before you write any appeal.
Selling limits, which are not enforcement
Blocks. Nothing is wrong. Every account carries a cap on how much it can list and sell in a month.
Clears with. Nothing needs clearing. This is normal throttling, and opening a support ticket draws attention to an account with no problem.
How this tool decides
And where it deliberately refuses to.
The message code beats every symptom
If you tell it eBay named MC011 or MC999, that answer settles the result on its own and the page says so. eBay telling you what it did outranks anything a questionnaire can infer from what stopped working.
A close call is reported as close
Where the runner up scores within a quarter of the leader, both are shown. A tool that hides its own uncertainty to look confident is worse than useless when you have one appeal to spend.
Ties break towards the more serious
When two types score level, the heavier one is shown first. Over-preparing costs you an afternoon. Guessing wrong costs one of very few attempts, and eBay does not owe you a second reading.
It cannot see your account
There is no eBay connection here and no data leaves your browser. It reads six answers you typed, which means it can be wrong in ways your Seller Hub never would be. Treat it as a way to organise the question, not to answer it.
Selling limits are in the list on purpose
Hitting a monthly cap is normal throttling, not enforcement, and sellers mistake it for a suspension constantly. Then they open a support ticket that draws attention to an account with nothing wrong with it.
What it will not do
It will not write your appeal. The reason most appeals fail is that they are generic, and a tool that produced appeal text on demand would be manufacturing exactly the thing eBay rejects.
Identified correctly, then answered
We publish the eBay notices from cases we work, screenshots and all, so you can check the reasoning instead of trusting it.
eBay flagged unusual selling activity on a UK seller's account on 19 July, opened a review and held payouts. The appeal was granted and the selling restriction closed on 6 August, 18 days later.
Negative feedback and late shipment flags were appealed on eBay's own evidence and removed, ratings included. The eBay AU account now reports a 0.00% transaction defect rate and a 0.00% late shipment rate.
An eBay Canada store took C$1,991.69 over 31 days, up 166% on the prior month. Promoted Listings produced 98.1% of it, which is the growth and the risk in the same number.
Questions about eBay restrictions
The restriction types on this page come from our eBay suspension guide, which cites eBay policy throughout. Where this tool and eBay disagree, eBay is right.
Send us what you are looking at.
We will tell you which one it is.
Your answers are already in the message box. Paste the eBay notice underneath them if you have it, because the wording usually settles what a questionnaire can only estimate.