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Program news

We hope everyone is well. We want to take this time to share with you some updates that have occurred within the eBay Developers Program over the last quarter (April - June 2023). 

eBay Connect 2023 set for July

The eBay Connect 2023 virtual conference will take place on July 25, 2023. 

For those who cannot join the live Webinar, all recordings and all slide decks will be posted to the https://developer.ebay.com/grow/events page after the event.

Extended Producer Responsibility ID fields now set at account level

As of June 22, 2023, sellers on the eBay France marketplace will now provide Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) ID fields at the account level instead of the listing level. Sellers registered to sell on the eBay France marketplace will go to this page in their eBay account to provide their EPR IDs for applicable categories: https://accountsettings.<domain>/epr-fr. Sellers will use the domain of their home/registration site. Sellers based in the US will use https://accountsettings.ebay.com/epr-fr, sellers based in France will use https://accountsettings.ebay.fr/epr-fr, and so on

This change affects the following APIs:

API updates

The following updates have been made to our APIs over the last few months.

EEK, Hazmat, and regional Custom Policies enabled on eBay DE

Three features were enabled on eBay Germany marketplace in May. These three features are highlighted in the sections below. All three of these features are expected to be enabled on all other EU marketplaces later in Q3.

Energy Efficiency Labels (EEK) information

Energy Efficiency Label and Product Information Sheet images can now be uploaded and associated with eBay listings on the eBay Germany marketplace. 

In the Add/Revise/Relist/Verify calls of the Trading API, this information is provided through the Regulatory.EnergyEfficiencyLabel container. If defined for the eBay listing, the GetItem call will return the Regulatory.EnergyEfficiencyLabel container with EEK information.

In the Create and Update methods of the Inventory API, this information is provided through the regulatory.energyEfficiencyLabel container. If defined for the eBay listing/offer, the getOffer and getOffers methods will return the regulatory.energyEfficiencyLabel container with EEK information.

Hazardous Materials information

Hazardous Materials information can now be associated with eBay listings on the eBay Germany marketplace. 

In the Add/Revise/Relist/Verify calls of the Trading API, this information is provided through the Regulatory.Hazmat container. If defined for the eBay listing, the GetItem call will return the Regulatory.Hazmat container with Hazardous Materials information.

In the Create and Update Offer methods of the Inventory API, this information is provided through the regulatory.hazmat container. If defined for the eBay listing/offer, the getOffer and getOffers methods will return the regulatory.hazmat container with Hazardous Materials information.

The Hazmat containers for both APIs require predefined enumeration values to represent hazardous material statements and pictograms. The getHazardousMaterialsLabels method of the Metadata API can be used to retrieve this metadata.

Regional Custom Policies enabled

On the eBay Germany marketplace, sellers can now associate country-specific Product Compliance and Takeback policies with eBay listings.

In the Add/Revise/Relist/Verify calls of the Trading API, country-specific Product Compliance policies are provided through the CustomPolicies.RegionalProductCompliancePolicies container, and country-specific Takeback policies are provided through the CustomPolicies.RegionalTakeBackPolicies container. 

In the Create and Update methods of the Inventory API, country-specific Product Compliance policies are provided through the listingPolicies.regionalProductCompliancePolicies container, and country-specific Takeback policies are provided through the listingPolicies.regionalTakeBackPolicies container. If defined for the eBay listing/offer, the getOffer and getOffers methods will return the listingPolicies.regionalProductCompliancePolicies and listingPolicies.regionalTakeBackPolicies containers with custom policy information.

Condition Descriptors rolled out for collectible cards

Numerous APIs were updated to support Condition Descriptors for collectible cards. This feature rolled out on June 26, 2023 for eBay UK, and will roll out to the rest of the eBay marketplaces in early July. With Condition Descriptors, sellers of collectible cards are able to provide more information on the quality and condition of cards in a structured format. The API changes are summarized below.

Metadata API

The getItemConditionPolicies method of the Metadata API was enhanced to display Condition Descriptor metadata for the eBay categories that support Condition Descriptors. The first categories to support Condition Descriptors are as follows:

  • Non-Sport Trading Card Singles 
  • CCG Individual Cards
  • Sports Trading Card Singles

The enabled categories will return the itemConditions.conditionDescriptors array. This array contains the possible condition descriptors and condition descriptor values applicable for the category. It also returns usage requirements, maximum length, cardinality, and help text. Each Condition Descriptor name and value will have numeric IDs associated with them, and it is these numeric IDs that will be passed into the Add/Revise/Relist/Verify calls of the Trading API and passed into the inventory item methods of the Inventory API.

Trading API

Condition Descriptor information is specified through one or more ConditionDescriptor containers in the Add/Revise/Relist family of calls in the Trading API. Numeric ID values (retrieved through getItemConditionPolicies method) are passed into the ConditionDescriptor.Name and ConditionDescriptor.Value. 

When using Condition Descriptors, the ConditionID value should be specified as 2750 for Graded cards, and as 4000 for Ungraded cards. Please also keep in mind that Condition Descriptors and the existing ConditionDescription field cannot be used together. If both are specified, the  ConditionDescription field will be dropped.

Inventory API

Condition Descriptor information is specified through the conditionDescriptors array in the inventory item methods of the Inventory API. Numeric ID values (retrieved through getItemConditionPolicies method) are passed into the conditionDescriptors.name field and conditionDescriptors.values array. 

When using Condition Descriptors, the condition value should be specified as LIKE_NEW for Graded cards, and as USED_VERY_GOOD for Ungraded cards. Please also keep in mind that Condition Descriptors and the existing conditionDescription field cannot be used together. If both are specified, the conditionDescription field will be dropped.

Browse API

For items where Condition Descriptors are defined, the conditionDescriptors array will be returned and show Condition Descriptor information for the item. The conditionDescriptors array was added to the following Browse API methods:

Buy Feed Beta API

For items where Condition Descriptors are defined, the conditionDescriptors field will be returned in getItemFeed and getItemSnapshotFeed files to show Condition Descriptor information for the item. 

PRIORITY_LISTING_REVISION topic added to Notification API

The PRIORITY_LISTING_REVISION topic is now supported by the Notification API. When subscribed to this notification topic, users will receive a notification when a listing has been added to, or removed from a Promoted Listing campaign. Applications must be enabled for the https://api.ebay.com/oauth/api_scope/buy.item.stream scope in order to subscribe to this notification.

The PRIORITY_LISTING_REVISION topic is also now available in the following SDKs:

GTIN values now returned by getItems in Browse API

The gtin field is now returned in getItems responses and in getItem responses when the COMPACT field group is set with the fieldgroups query parameter.Global Trade Item Number IDs include UPC, EAN, and ISBN values.

Promoted Listings report no longer support multiple funding models

Multiple funding models no longer supported in the same Promoted Listings report. A report can use either the ‘cost per sale’ funding model or the ‘cost per click’ funding model, but not both. This affects the createReportTask method.

WEEE Number returned in Browse API

The weeeNumber field is now returned in the getItem, getItemByLegacyId, and getItemsByItemGroup methods of Browse API. The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) registration number is required for any seller selling electrical and electronic equipment items on the eBay Germany marketplace.

This field is not currently returned in getItems response or in the COMPACT response payload of getItem.

Other Trading API updates

The following updates were made to the Trading API:

Deprecation and Decommission updates

The following APIs/methods/fields have recently been announced as deprecated. Please see the Deprecation Status page for detailed information.

The following APIs/methods/fields were recently decommissioned:

  • Listing-level Extended Product Responsibility ID fields no longer supported in Trading API, Inventory API, and Metadata API. See the Extended Producer Responsibility ID fields now set at account level story for more details.
  • The Client Alerts API was decommissioned on May 31, 2023. The alternative for this API is Platform Notifications, which supports all notification event types supported by Client Alerts API.
  • The Resolution Case Management API was decommissioned on June 5, 2023. The Post-Order API should be used to manage buyer-initiated cases.
  • The AddTransactionConfirmationItem and GetContextualKeywords calls of the Trading API were decommissioned on June 5, 2023 and were removed from Trading API WSDL and docs.

We hope everyone enjoyed the first half of 2023, and we are looking forward to working with the community in the second half of this year!