Illegal Ivory Trade Results on eBay
eBay
Australia
eBay
Canada
eBay
China
eBay
France
ebay
Germany
ebay
Netherland / Marktplaats
ebay
UK
ebay
USA
eBay Australia
The team examined listings for 197 elephant ivory items, of which only two (1%) appeared to be fully compliant with the site’s ivory policy, providing either a copy or photograph of a certificate of authenticity. Descriptions for 128 items either failed to provide or offer to provide proof of age or origin, while listings for 67 items made no reference either to the item’s provenance or to eBay’s policy. Tellingly, a number of sellers themselves did not even seem to know whether the item they were offering was bone or ivory.
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eBay Canada
Our Canada team
examined listings for 717 items found in a search for ‘ivory’ and found that 627
were elephant ivory. Descriptions for 72 (10%) of these items apparently
met eBay policies in Canada by clearly identifying a piece’s age, claiming it
was exempt by virtue of age and/or referring to a CITES certificate. Ads
for 496 of the items claimed them as antique, yet provided no evidence, while
ads for 67 more referred neither to age nor eBay policy.
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eBay China
Our team found 76 ivory items listed on
eBay China and 33 for products made from other endangered wild animals.
Alarmingly, these comprised three products made from tiger tooth or claw, 13
from rhino horns and 17 from turtle shells. These species are all listed
as endangered on CITES Appendix I and as Class 1 National Protected Wild Animals
in China. These items were being sold in the Chinese language from China.
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eBay France
Our team recorded no less than 703 ivory
products on eBay France - all of them for sale openly in defiance of both the
national and international ivory ban. The stated policy of eBay France is
to remove prohibited items from sale within 24 to 36 hours of being alerted to
their presence. Our team reported 200 of the 703 ivory items and checked
on them 24 to 48 hours later: not one had been removed. The only
conclusion to be drawn is that either eBay France is failing to adequately
monitor what it offers for sale or is simply turning a blind eye to it.
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eBay Germany
Despite the progress made by eBay in
Germany our researcher logged 66 ivory items during the survey week, a result
skewed by the fact that 44 of these were from a collection of antique African
ivory statues being offered by a single seller. A certificate was shown in
this listing, which was confirmed as genuine by the federal authority at IFAW’s
request. While this resolved this particular issue, IFAW is concerned that
enforcement authorities are incapable of ensuring that such permits are not used
to launder illegal ivory.
All the remaining 22 ivory items
contravened eBay Germany’s explicit policy. Eighteen were claimed as antique but
no documentation was offered; four (small brooches and necklaces) had neither
certificates nor statements of age. All of the suspected illegal items
were removed by eBay Germany when the research week ended. IFAW has found
that eBay Germany responds promptly and efficiently to reports of suspect
ivory. On one occasion following our snapshot survey, eight out of ten
listings on the site were reported: all were removed the same day.
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eBay Netherland / Marktplaats
Our team found 92
listings for elephant ivory on eBay in the Netherlands, all of which were
considered to be breaking the global ban on ivory trading. Of these, 56
items claimed to be antique but no reference was made to any supporting evidence
for the claim in the listings, other than statements along the lines of “I
inherited it from my grandmother” or “my parents brought it back from the Congo
in 1930.” An IFAW investigator contacted the sellers of 40 of these items
and asked for documentation to illustrate that the items were antique: none of
the sellers could offer any proof.
The Dutch team also investigated ivory listings on Marktplaats, one
of eBay’s subsidiary sites in the Netherlands. Marktplaats advises users
of its site that endangered species may not be traded but it has no specific
guidelines on ivory at all. The team found 104 listings for elephant ivory
of which 34 contained claims of being antique with the remainder featuring no
reference either to age or the site’s policy. None of the items were
considered to have met the requirements of the site that there should be no
trade in endangered species.
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eBay UK
Our
team found 424 elephant ivory items listed over the survey week, most of them
originating in the UK but some were from other countries including Thailand and
China. Only two items (0.5%) offered Defra certification, 347 were
Violation 1 Listings (unsupported claims of antiquity) and 67 were Violation 2
Listings (neither age of item nor eBay policy mentioned). eBay UK claims
to act within 24-36 hours to remove prohibited items reported to it. Of the 105
items that were reported to eBay, we found that 75 were still listed 48 hours
later.
Our team also logged three hippo ivory objects, one
made tortoiseshell and another of ivory and tortoiseshell: this last item was
removed following our report to eBay, but was then re-listed as “faux”.
This raises the issue of suspicious items reported to eBay being simply
re-listed later under different descriptions.
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eBay
USA
Ninety ivory items were found to be listed during the survey week, of
which only four appeared to be fully compliant. There were 73 violation
one incidences (claims of antiquity but no reference made as to proof) and 13
violation 2 incidences (no reference either to age or to eBay policy). Only one
seller had a photo of a CITES permit, but this proved to be for alligator and
crocodile products, not for the ivory item he was selling. One seller
listed 28 ivory items, claiming they were “imported under CITES in the
1980s.”
Interestingly, our team also noted that some items were
listed twice and at different starting prices. One was a 100lb teak
elephant, listed with a starting price of $595 and again with a price of
$895. Its tusks were either bone or ivory: the seller didn’t know
which. Another apparent double-listing was for a tusk starting at $695 and
also at $675.
eBay USA’s policies covering the sale of ivory are
not only confusing and ill-defined but hopelessly weak. At present no
proof is required that ivory is legal.
