Editor's take: eBay has faced significant controversy in recent years. Now, the e-commerce giant is preparing to tackle "agentic shopping" and other aggressive AI-driven bots that compete with regular, paying human customers.
Starting February 20, 2026, eBay will explicitly prohibit chatbots and AI agents from operating on its auction platform. The company plans to update its user agreement with a targeted change concerning the "automated means" used to access its services.
eBay announced the update in a recent email to users. The revised agreements include an enhanced anti-scraping section, clearly banning AI, large language models, and other bots designed to place purchase orders without human intervention. Any AI-based entity wishing to operate on the platform must obtain prior permission from eBay, the email stated.
The new rules follow recent changes to eBay's robots.txt file, which now explicitly seeks to block bots and AI technology. "Checkouts are strictly for human users," the server-side file now reads.
While the Robots Exclusion Protocol in robots.txt cannot fully prevent access by bots or AI agents, the updated user agreement establishes a significant legal barrier to automated crawlers operated by Big Tech companies or AI startups.
AI-driven shopping may sound like a bad idea – and it's hard to see its practical value – but some users are already experimenting with it. "Agentic" e-commerce features are now integrated into ChatGPT, including a checkout function that allows direct purchases from platforms like Etsy or Shopify.
Other AI-powered commerce tools are also emerging. Perplexity offers a one-click checkout for paying users, while Google is developing a Universal Commerce Protocol to standardize shopping AI agents. Amazon, meanwhile, is rolling out a "Buy For Me" feature to enable purchases from external brands directly within its app.
eBay CEO Jamie Iannone recently indicated that the company could eventually participate in OpenAI's Instant Checkout program. The updated user agreement suggests that eBay may allow certain AI agents to make authorized purchases on the platform. Iannone also mentioned that eBay is experimenting with its own agentic shopping experiences, a move that could complicate matters for a site already grappling with counterfeit goods and unsafe products.