You photograph your stock. You light it, edit it, upload it.
Then a rival lists the same product using your photograph, and eBay is fine with it.
That is not a loophole. eBay says creating a listing gives eBay and its customers permission to use your images, videos and product details.
eBay may then add your content to its product catalogue. Any seller can use what sits in there.
You agreed to all of it in the User Agreement, somewhere around the time you were mainly thinking about a printer.
Sellers reach us furious about this every few weeks, usually after a weekend spent building a photo setup.
What the policy permits, and the rules that get an upload rejected.
Key Takeaways
- eBay tells sellers to take their own images and write their own descriptions.
- You may also use images and product details from the eBay product catalogue.
- Catalogue content comes from eBay customers and third parties, and any seller can use it.
- Listing on eBay grants eBay and its customers permission to use your images and videos.
- eBay may add your photographs to the catalogue, where rivals can then use them.
- You can ask a seller to drop your image only where it sits outside the catalogue.
- eBay does not allow manufacturer website images, even publicly available ones.
- Copying from other sites or image searches may count as copyright infringement.
- eBay blocks videos over 150MB, and recommends staying under one minute.
- It calls blurry or distorted footage poor quality, and blocks that too.
- Contact details, URLs or any call to act elsewhere will fail moderation.
- eBay also rejects personal data that appears in an image or a video.
What the eBay Images, Videos and Text Policy Says First
One sentence, and it reads as an instruction.
Take your own images and write your own descriptions. That opens the policy, before any detail arrives.
eBay then allows one exception. You may use the images and product details from its product catalogue.
It describes that catalogue as content from eBay customers and third parties, which all sellers may use.
So you have two safe sources. Your own camera, and the catalogue.
Everything else needs the owner’s permission, and most sellers never ask for it.
Publicly available is not the same as free
Here is the misunderstanding that causes most of the trouble.
eBay answers it plainly. You cannot use images or videos from a manufacturer’s website, even where anyone can see them.
It goes further. Copying content from other websites or internet searches may count as copyright infringement.
Sellers reason that the brand wants the product sold, so the brand will not mind. Brands mind, and the ones running a rights programme mind in writing.
A takedown on those grounds comes from the rights owner rather than eBay. That changes how you get the listing back, and we cover the route in every eBay restriction type and how each one is lifted.
Why Rivals Can Legally Use Your eBay Photographs
Because you granted the permission when you listed.
eBay sets it out in one answer. Creating listings gives eBay and its customers permission, through the User Agreement, to use your images, videos and product details.
Then comes the part sellers miss. Your content may join the eBay product catalogue, and other sellers may use it in their own listings.
Notice who benefits. A catalogue works by holding one good set of images per product, which helps buyers and costs you the advantage you paid for.
Key point: listing on eBay grants eBay and its customers permission to use your images. Once a photograph joins the catalogue, asking a rival to stop is no longer the remedy.
What you can still do about it
One route, and it has a condition attached.
eBay says you may contact the seller and ask them to remove your image or text, where that content is not part of the catalogue.
Read the condition twice. Once your photograph sits in the catalogue, asking is no longer the remedy, because the permission runs through eBay rather than through you.
So the practical defence is to compete on something a rival cannot copy from a catalogue entry.
Photograph the item, not the product
A catalogue image shows the product. Your listing sells one specific object.
Photograph the actual unit, with its actual wear, its serial plate, its bundled accessories. Nobody can lift those into a catalogue entry, because they describe your item alone.
That also happens to be what buyers of used stock want to see, and it heads off the cases that start with the words not as described.
The same logic runs through why eBay listing photos with text vanish from external search, which covers the rest of the photographic standards.
The Eight Reasons eBay Rejects an Upload
Two of them catch sellers who are trying to do the right thing.
Size comes first. eBay does not allow videos over 150MB, and recommends keeping them under a minute for the best viewing experience.
Poor quality comes next, and it is the one people argue with. eBay counts blurry, undefined or distorted footage as poor quality, which rules out the clip you filmed in a dim stockroom.
The off eBay rule is wider than it sounds
eBay blocks any video, image or audio carrying contact information, web links or URLs.
It also blocks calls to action asking viewers to do something on another site. Its own example is telling somebody to visit another address to learn more.
Now think about your packaging. A branded box with your web address on the side, sitting in shot, carries a URL into the frame without you deciding anything.
Turn the box, or crop it. That is a two second fix and a genuinely annoying rejection.
Pro tip: check the frame for anything readable before you upload. A web address on packaging, a delivery label, a name badge. All of them fail moderation, and none were deliberate.
The rest are what you would expect
Infringing content used without the rights owner’s permission. Illegal material, offensive material, nudity or sexual content.
eBay also rejects personally identifiable information. Worth a thought before you photograph a device showing an account name, or a document with an address on it.
What the Policy Means for Your Descriptions
Write your own is the instruction, and it covers text as much as images.
Plenty of sellers paste a manufacturer’s marketing copy into the description and call it done. That is the same act as lifting the photograph, and it carries the same risk.
eBay does allow product details from its catalogue, so the sanctioned shortcut exists. Use that rather than a brand site.
Your own words describe your own item
Catalogue copy describes a product in the abstract. It cannot mention the mark on the corner or the missing manual.
So a pasted description is not just a rights problem. It is a returns problem, because it promises a condition you may not be shipping.
Buyers open cases over the gap between the words and the parcel. Writing your own is how you close it.
Who Owns an eBay Photograph After You Upload It
You still own the copyright. You have simply licensed a lot of it away.
eBay does not claim ownership anywhere in the policy. What it describes is permission, granted through the User Agreement, for eBay and its customers to use the content.
That distinction matters outside eBay. Your photographs remain yours for your own website, your social accounts and any other marketplace.
It matters much less inside eBay, where the permission does the work and the catalogue is the mechanism.
Feedback photographs follow the same rules
Buyers can attach pictures to Feedback, and the same standards apply.
eBay asks that a Feedback picture accurately represents the item purchased, and that it respects third party rights along with its offensive materials, adult items and illegal content policies.
Useful to know when a buyer posts a photograph of something that is not what you sent. There is a standard it has to meet, and a route to report it.
How to Audit a Catalogue Against This Policy
Most breaches arrive in bulk, from a supplier feed rather than a decision.
Find the images you did not take
Start with anything a supplier sent you in a spreadsheet.
Studio shots on a pure white background, identical across every listing, are the giveaway. Ask the supplier for written permission, or replace them.
Permission from a distributor is not the same as permission from the brand. Where the brand runs a rights programme, that difference decides who wins a dispute.
Check the frame for anything readable
Web addresses, phone numbers, order paperwork, a name badge, a delivery label.
Any of those can fail moderation, and they tend to appear in videos rather than stills because a camera moves and catches things.
Prioritise by what a takedown would cost
Work your best sellers first, as always.
A rights complaint removes the listing and the sales history with it. On a listing that took a year to build, that is a much bigger loss than the afternoon it takes to reshoot.
Enough removals also feed account level enforcement, which is how a photograph problem turns into an account problem.
Reshoot in batches, best sellers last
That ordering runs against instinct, and it is deliberate.
Your top listings carry the sales history you depend on, so they are a poor place to test a new photographic setup. Prove the setup on mid table stock first.
Once you know the shots pass moderation and the impressions hold, work up to the listings that matter. Evidence is cheap at the bottom of a catalogue and expensive at the top.
One exception overrides that order. Anything using an image you had no right to use gets fixed immediately, whatever it earns, because a takedown removes the listing and its history together.
Should You Fight the eBay Catalogue or Feed It
Both are reasonable, and the answer depends on what you sell.
A seller shifting sealed retail units gains from the catalogue. Matching a catalogue entry fills your details automatically and puts you alongside everyone else selling the same thing.
A seller shifting used or unusual stock gains nothing from it. There is no meaningful catalogue entry for a fifteen year old camera with a dented hood.
Feed it when you compete on price and speed
High volume, identical stock, thin margins.
Your advantage there is operational rather than visual, so a shared image costs you very little. Speed of listing matters more, and the catalogue is faster.
Fight it when the item is the point
Vintage, handmade, refurbished, graded, or anything where condition varies unit by unit.
Here your photographs are the product description, and a generic catalogue shot actively misleads. Shoot your own, show the wear, and let the images do the separating.
You still grant eBay the same permission. The difference is that nobody else can use a photograph of your specific object, because it is not their object.
Where the Catalogue Helps You Rather Than Hurts
Worth saying, because the policy reads like a loss and is not only that.
Matching a catalogue entry fills your listing details automatically. Brand, model, specifications and identifiers arrive without typing, which cuts the errors that thin listings usually carry.
Complete details also feed the filters buyers use to narrow a category. A listing that inherits proper structured data survives filtering that a hand typed one would fail.
So the catalogue takes something from your photography and gives something back to your data. Whether that trade suits you depends entirely on which of the two you were relying on.
Check what the catalogue says about your item
Auto-filled is not the same as correct.
A catalogue entry can carry the wrong year, the wrong capacity or a specification that changed mid production. You inherit that error, and the buyer holds you to it rather than eBay.
Read the prefilled fields once before you publish. It takes a minute, and it prevents a case where the listing described somebody else’s version of your product.
What This Policy Cannot Solve for You
It sets the rules for content. It does not make anybody click.
A perfectly compliant image on a listing nobody reaches earns nothing. Finding buyers is still a title and item specifics job, covered in why empty eBay item specifics delete you from filtered search.
The policy also cannot stop a rival outselling you with your own photograph. Once the image sits in the catalogue, the fight moves to price, postage and your record as a seller.
One last honest limit. Nothing here guarantees moderation behaves consistently, and eBay publishes reasons rather than a decision process.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use manufacturer photos on eBay?
No. eBay says you cannot use images or videos from a manufacturer’s website, even where they are publicly available, and that copying may count as copyright infringement.
Another seller is using my eBay photograph. What can I do?
You may ask them to remove it, but only where the image is not part of the eBay product catalogue. Once it is in the catalogue, your listing granted permission for other sellers to use it.
Does eBay own my listing photographs?
No. eBay describes permission granted through the User Agreement rather than ownership, so your images remain yours to use anywhere else.
What size can an eBay listing video be?
Under 150MB, which eBay enforces. It also recommends keeping videos shorter than one minute for the best viewing experience.
Why was my eBay video rejected?
Common reasons include size, poor quality, infringing content, and anything directing buyers off eBay such as a URL or contact details. Personal data and offensive content are also on the list.
Can I copy a product description from the brand’s site?
eBay tells you to write your own descriptions, and allows product details from its catalogue as the alternative. A brand site is neither of those.
Can I use images from the eBay product catalogue?
Yes. eBay names the catalogue as content from its customers and third parties that all sellers may use, alongside photographs you took yourself.
Can I use another eBay seller photograph?
Only where it sits outside the catalogue and they agree. Once an image is in the catalogue, any seller may use it in their listings.
Does a watermark protect my eBay photographs?
It creates a different problem. eBay says text, artwork, logos and watermarks can stop your images appearing in third party search results, so a watermark costs you distribution. eBay also counts photo compliance under listing quality, one of the seven Best Match factors.
What happens when a brand files a rights complaint?
The rights owner filed it rather than eBay, so you usually settle with the brand and eBay restores the listing once the claim is withdrawn. Enough removals feed account level enforcement.
Can I still use my photographs elsewhere?
Yes. eBay describes permission through the User Agreement rather than ownership, so your images remain yours for your own site and other marketplaces.
A buyer posted a misleading photo in Feedback. Is that allowed?
eBay asks that a Feedback picture accurately represents the item purchased, and that it follows its rights, offensive materials, adult items and illegal content policies.
Shoot the Object, Not the Product
The policy is short, and it asks for one thing. Use content you made or content eBay gave you.
Four steps, in this order, if you are auditing a catalogue this month.
First, find the images you did not take. Supplier feeds and brand sites are where they come from, and identical white background shots across a range are the tell.
Second, check every frame for something readable. A URL on a box, a name badge, a delivery label, an account name on a screen. All of them fail moderation, and none of them were deliberate.
Third, rewrite any description you pasted. Catalogue details are the sanctioned shortcut, and a brand site is not.
Fourth, decide per product line whether the catalogue helps you or flattens you. Sealed retail stock gains from it, and anything where condition varies does not.
Worth holding on to while you work: the permission you granted is not a betrayal, it is the deal. eBay runs a catalogue so buyers see consistent products, and consistency is worth something to you as a buyer even while it costs you as a seller.
What it does mean is that a beautiful photograph of a mass produced item is a poor moat. Photograph the object in front of you, wear and all, and you have made something no catalogue can hand to a competitor.
Sources
- eBay, Images, videos and text policy, for the instruction to take your own images and write your own descriptions, the catalogue exception, the permission granted through the User Agreement, the rule on manufacturer website images, the 150MB video limit and the moderation rejection reasons.
- The search manipulation policy, for the requirement that listing content is accurate and refers only to the item for sale.
- Photograph standards sit in Take great photos on Seller Center.
- Our own examples come from client catalogues we have audited, and the wider guides sit in the EcomVengers blog.
One job worth doing alongside it. If you are reshooting anyway, run the listing title through the eBay listing title analyser while you are in there, since the title decides whether anyone reaches the photograph.
Where a rights complaint has already taken listings down, that is a different job and it is the work we do. Send us the notice and we will tell you whether it came from eBay or from the brand.
Ali Khan is the founder of EcomVengers, the eBay growth and account recovery agency. He has spent the better part of a decade pulling suspended sellers back from MC011 and MC999 notices, repairing wrecked defect rates, and turning buried listings into ranked ones. When eBay's villains show up, he is the one sellers call. You handle the millions, he handles the villains.
View all posts by Ali Khan
