Selling perfume and EU Law

[cardamomginger]

I sell (or at least used to) perfume on Ebay. Mainly decants of high end/exclusive/hard to find fragrances. I decant these myself into glass vials or atomisers. Last year it was all tickety-boo. Lots of other sellers were selling similar products and everyone seemed happy. I sold to some lovely people and, other than a few inevitable impossible to please buyers, people were happy with what I provided.

Ebay have now banned the sale of decants and unofficial samples and partially full bottles. This is all part of their policy and I accept that I can no longer sell on Ebay.

Ebay are claiming that it is against EU Law to sell either a decant or a partially full bottle of scent or any type of cosmetic product. I've had a plough through some of the (immensely dull) EU legislation on cosmetic sales and cannot find anything that bans these kind of sales. All I can find is a requirement for a list of ingredients to be provided with products sold and that, where the size of the product does not permit the list to be stuck to the container, the list may be separately printed and supplied 'in close proximity' to the product. That's fine - I can do that.

Does anyone know anything about EU Law on this topic? Is Ebay right? Or can I legally sell decants? As I say, I accept that I can no longer sell on Ebay, but if I can find another forum on which to sell I would like to. An alternative is to set up my own website. But I want to be legal!

Can you ask eBay to provide this? I suspect it's not illegal but they've entered into an agreement with the cosmetics companies. It's the same with ghds. You can't sell new ones on there due to an agreement with the makers of ghds.

It annoys me as I was lucky enough to get 2 sets last Xmas and I only need one. It's an expensive thing to have 2 of!

I had a listing suspended and they linked to the piece of legislation they say proves it is illegal. It was all about ingredients and labelling. Nothing about a 'secondary' seller (like me) selling partially full second hand bottles, or decants.

TBH - I don't expect a straightforward and accurate answer from Ebay on this. They have made their policy, and that's that as far as they are concerned.

Duty has to be paid on perfume, perhaps that is why

Is it because of postal regulations?

Quote: Including eau de parfum, eau de toilette and alcohol-freeperfumes, but excluding non-flammable perfumed creams, gels, oils or lotions.

Volume per item must not exceed 150ml. No more than four perfumes or aftershaves can be sent in any one package. The perfume or aftershave must be within its original retail packaging and then placed in strong outer packaging. The inner packagings must be packed, secured or cushioned to prevent breakage or leakage of their contents into the outer packaging.

AnID8000 labelmust be applied. The sender’s name and return address must be clearly visible on the outer packaging.

These items must be presented at a Post Office...

giveme but I've already paid duty on the goods I am selling on. And in the case on international sales, customs forms are filled in and if the receiving country chooses to impose additional charges, that is up to them.

OldLady - don't think so. Domestic postal conditions are not to do with EU Law on sales of cosmetics/perfumes. And I could have set up a 'collect only' or a courier condition which woudl get round Royal Mail. Ebay didn't say it was to do with the delivery methods, they say it is illegal to sell them, not to post them.

This is due to a ruling by the French courts in 2008. A perfume manufacturer (LVMH) complained that eBay had not done enough to stop the sale of fake goods. The court decided that eBay was not an authorised reseller of LVMH products and ordered them to remove all listings even where the product was authentic. This ruling is binding on both the French and UK sites but does not affect ebay.com.

This might be something to do with it, then. This report was published over a year ago, will see if I can find out if the legislation has actually come into force, or is about to.

prh - thanks. So it's not exactly what Ebay are claiming then! And at the time, the fragrances I had listed, and which were suspended for breach of policy, were by a different perfume house, not LVMH.

OldLady - yes, I read all about that. But that's to do with permitted ingredients and that ever more of these are being banned, not about reselling partially full bottles or decanted samples.

Just checked the policy on ebay.com and there are fewer restrictions. Although it is not clear that decants would actually be allowed (and US-based perfume blogs I subscribe to have lamented Ebay's tightening up on decants for some time now).