Is eBay damaging PowerSellers' security?

Regular eBay sellers (also called "PowerSellers") must register business accounts immediately and eBay will also require anyone with "high levels of sales" not registered as a business to change their status quickly.

Under these new rules there is no other way to carry on as a PowerSeller than to register a business account.

This means that sellers will have to give a physical address, tell customers they are a business and provide a cooling-off period if they are selling fixed price goods. It seems that EU law is behind these changes.

Some people are concerned that showing their address in this public way will affect their personal security. eBay is ofering diferent ways of displaying the information but it insists that business sellers must show a real georgraphical address - not a PO Box.

This may sound bad for big sellers, but there are solutions...

Registering a company is easy through Ordered Management, and we have various ways to protect sellers' confidentiality. We provide a Registered Office address and Mailbox service that will keep your home address as you want it... private!

For total confidentiality we can provide Nominee Directors and Shareholders. There is nothing wrong with wanting to protect your identity - especially now that identity theft has become a real and valid fear. For people with legitimate reasons for keeping their details out of the public record of their company, this is an effective and honourable solution. The principle is simple… the names registered on the company register held at Companies House are the names of the Nominees. Contact details of the true owner (called the "beneficial owner") are held confidentially in the Nominee's files and will not be declared (unless the beneficial owner is trying to conceal a crime).

People from across the world use this service, and the majority are doing it because they have other businesses and want to prevent their competitors from seeing the link. Competitors are thirsty for information and make tactical decisions based on what they believe their business rivals are doing; so it pays to keep strategic plans under wraps - including any clues that may show up on Companies House.

The most popular of these services is the Nominee Director - popular because company directors' details are the easiest pieces of information to search for. The Nominee stands as proxy for the true owner and that Nominee is registered as the director of the company. and issues a Contract and General Power of Attorney empowering the owner to operate the business as normal. The contract is reconfirmed annually basis and the owner may then end the contract and be appointed as a full director.

For eBay, the announced changes are one of the inevitable realities of trading under EU law. But this does not have to be a put-off For people who are making good business out of eBay sales. Simple, quick solutions are at hand to keep the business going but avoid security problems.

© Derrick Phillips (2008)

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