eBay has started blocking some third-party AI agents from browsing its marketplace, including Meta's Muse, The Paypers reported, citing The Verge. A reader told The Verge that Muse had compiled a daily digest of watches for sale on eBay for several weeks before it reported being blocked. In The Verge's tests, Muse sometimes sent users to external sites that mirrored eBay listings, and access appeared inconsistent as of November 12, 2026.
eBay had already updated its user agreement to prohibit 'buy-for-me agents' and 'LLM-driven bots' that place orders without human review. Spokesperson Sybille St. Arromand declined to say whether new limits had been introduced, describing eBay's approach to third parties as selective. She said eBay is in discussions with potential partners and is evaluating how outside agents could help new customers discover its inventory.
After The Verge's report, St. Arromand said the restrictions are not a blanket ban: eBay permits AI search, discovery and certain agent-assisted navigation, and blocks unauthorized automated scraping, including data collection for model training, when detected. eBay did not explain why Muse lost access, and Meta declined to comment.
According to The Paypers, Amazon blocks external agents from browsing or shopping entirely, Target allows them in some cases, and Shopify has opened its catalog of 1 billion listings to shopper-set agents.
