eBay 2007 Wildlife Trade Survey: Bidding for Extinction
eBay™ is the Internet’s single biggest shop window. And as this report indicates, national websites run by eBay are being used as one of the main channels through which illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products is conducted over the Internet. A comprehensive and alarming failure by eBay to stop this wildlife trade is allowing users to buy and sell wildlife products made from some of the world’s most endangered species.
IFAW's 2007 eBay Survey measured the effectiveness of eBay’s rules and monitoring systems by identifying the scale of trade in elephant ivory on its websites. Our researchers investigated eBay websites in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, UK and USA for seven consecutive days in a randomly chosen week in February 2007. Researchers also monitored eBay China over four days.
The results of this new study reveal an alarming level of illegal trade, specifically in ivory items. Of those items we investigated, more than 90 percent violated the stated ivory listing policies of the respective eBay websites, which in some cases are more lenient than national policies on wildlife trade.
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IFAW's 2007 eBay survey "Bidding for Extinction".
The results reveal an alarming level of illegal trade on worldwide eBay auction platforms, specifically in ivory items.
