Trading Assistant’s Required To Be Licensed In Pennsylvania

October 14, 2008 · Filed Under Internet Marketing, News, eBay, ecommerce · Comment 

With the changes eBay made to the Trading Assistant Program in the past year there has been a significant reduction in the number of TA’s (Trading Assistants). Now Pennsylvania has signed into law the Auctioneer Licensing and Trading Assistant Registration Act (Senate Bill 908) that will require those selling items online that do they do not own, to obtain a license and secure bonding or face criminal actions.

While the purpose of the law is apparently to protect those that consign items to be sold on the internet, it appears that this law was requested and lobbied for by auctioneers in Pennsylvania who saw a decrease in the amount of items brought to their auction houses. Instead those with items to be sold were seeking out ecommerce marketer’s that advertise online sales of items for a fee.

Though this law is clearly directed towards those TA’s on eBay, it will be enforced for any person or business selling in an auction type format on any marketplace. I have a call into the Pennsylvania Dept. Of State regarding those selling in fixed price or Buy It Now format to clarify if these are affected by the new law. Stay tuned!

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