eBay appears to have shut the door on third-party AI agents
eBay appears to have blocked AI agents, including Meta's Muse, from browsing on the platform - the latest speed bump in the AI agent race. A reader tells The Verge that for several weeks he's had his Muse agent browse and curate a daily digest of watches for sale on platforms like eBay, including a […]
Silicon Valley's AI agent revolution is encountering obstacles as retailers and service providers continue to hinder their use. eBay has reportedly blocked AI agents like Meta's Muse from browsing the platform, limiting their ability to assist users in finding and purchasing goods. A Muse user reported that the agent was unable to retrieve links or details from eBay last weekend. Similar issues arose when using other search requests, with Muse redirecting users to external sites mirroring eBay listings.
AI agents have been promoted for their potential to enhance the online shopping experience, from booking travel to making purchases. However, retailers are increasingly blocking these agents, raising questions about their practicality. eBay had previously updated its user agreement to ban "buy-for-me agents" and "LLM-driven bots" that place orders without human review.
Despite eBay's restrictions, agents like Muse were able to browse the site and retrieve listings for users. eBay's spokesperson, Sybille St. Arromand, stated that the company takes a selective approach to third-party access, blocking unauthorized scraping and training on their data. They emphasized their ongoing discussions with potential partners and their focus on preserving a trusted end-to-end experience for buyers and sellers.
Retailers' comfort levels with third-party agents vary. Amazon blocks external agents entirely, while Target has restrictions allowing agents to browse in some cases but not others. Shopify has opened its catalog to enable agents to purchase items on behalf of users. However, these developments have not significantly increased agentic commerce, as most people are not using AI in this manner.
For instance, Uber reported only four rides via third-party agents in Q3 and around 500 Uber Eats orders in a single week. Similarly, DoorDash mentioned "several hundred" orders placed via third-party agents during the same period, compared to a total of 993 million orders last quarter.
Written by urgent.news from The Verge's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
