High street stores tell eBay to tackle shoplifters

House of Fraser, River Island, Asda and other retailers met the company and asked it to share intelligence on suspect sellers.

They also demanded that eBay ban the sale of credit notes and vouchers sold by high street stores.

Shoplifters regularly return stolen goods to shops and exchange them for vouchers.

The site has also been criticised for selling elephant ivory in a wildlife charity report.

An investigative report released by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) said customers were literally bidding for the world's largest land mammals' extinction.

It found only 10 of the 424 listings of ivory in the UK were found to be fully compliant with eBay policies which reflect international legislation designed to protect elephants from commercial exploitation.

Robbie Marsland, IFAW UK director, said: "Elephants are facing extinction, in part because of internet ivory trade. It is time for action.

"IFAW believes that as the world's largest online shop window, eBay has a special responsibility to lead the way by banning ivory from their sites.

"Only a global ban on all ivory sales will remove the cover under which this criminal activity currently operates."

The snapshot survey conducted in the UK, Australia, China, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Canada and the USA tracked over 2,200 elephant ivory items listed on eBay websites and found that more than 90 per cent of the listings breached even eBay's own respective national wildlife policies.

While international wildlife trade laws are complex, in general it is illegal to sell carved or uncarved ivory unless it is antique and accompanied by a proof of age certificate.

On eBay, however, many sellers are being allowed simply to list items with no provenance of legality.

Very few of the suspected illegal items reported by IFAW investigators to eBay during the snapshot survey were removed from sale - eBay UK claims to act within 36 hours to remove prohibited items reported to it.

Of 105 items that were reported to eBay UK as being suspected illegal ivory, IFAW claim that 75 were still listed 48 hours later.

IFAW believes that the only way to protect elephants from poachers is to shut down the markets where illegal ivory can easily be passed off as "antique".

Last week IFAW met with eBay global headquarters to present the findings of "Bidding for Extinction" and welcomed assurances that a review of wildlife policies will take place over the coming weeks.

A spokesman for eBay said: "Stolen items are strictly prohibited from sale on eBay and we're committed to keeping the site free from such items. We certainly do not accept that there are a significant number of stolen items on the site.

"The reality is that we have strong relationships with a wide variety of retailers and law enforcement, and in the small number of cases where potentially stolen items are reported to us, we actively assist the police with their investigations and provide ongoing assistance in securing convictions where appropriate."