eBay Restricts Third-Party AI Agents Amid E-Commerce Bot Pushback
eBay appears to have blocked third-party AI agents like Meta's Muse from browsing its marketplace, highlighting ongoing hurdles for agentic commerce.
eBay appears to have restricted third-party artificial intelligence agents, such as Meta’s Muse, from browsing its platform. A reader reported to The Verge that Muse could no longer extract links, prices, shipping information, or condition notes for watches listed on eBay, noting that the agent stated it was blocked. Tests conducted by The Verge successfully replicated this behavior, occasionally redirecting users to external websites that mirrored eBay listings.
Online shopping is frequently highlighted as a prime use case where autonomous tools can enhance the human experience by finding deals, planning trips, or buying goods. However, third-party agents regularly face blocks from retail platforms, raising questions about their practical utility. Although eBay previously modified its user agreement to prohibit bots that complete purchases without human oversight, tools like Muse had previously retained the ability to scan listings.
In an email statement to The Verge, eBay spokesperson Sybille St. Arromand stated that artificial intelligence is increasingly integrated into the platform for item discovery, personalization, and sales. While declining to confirm whether new restrictions were recently implemented, St. Arromand noted that the company employs a selective approach to third-party access, restricting agents in specific scenarios involving unauthorized data scraping and training. She added that eBay engages in discussions with prospective partners and evaluates how external agents might assist new users in finding inventory, while prioritizing a trusted experience for buyers and sellers. Meta chose not to comment on the matter.
Retailers display varying attitudes toward external agents. Amazon completely blocks external agents from browsing or shopping, while Target enforces partial restrictions that permit browsing occasionally. Conversely, Shopify has made its catalog of one billion items available so that shoppers can authorize agents to buy products for them.
The integration of automated agents into retail challenges the assumption that digital storefronts interact primarily with humans. For instance, in October, testing revealed that users could employ Muse to repeatedly add items to carts on secondhand designer site The RealReal, effectively holding products hostage until the company updated its bot protections.
Despite the industry focus, current adoption metrics suggest that agentic commerce remains limited. Uber reported fulfilling only four rides through third-party agents in the third quarter and about 500 Uber Eats orders during Halloween week. Similarly, DoorDash processed only several hundred orders via external agents out of 993 million total orders last quarter.
What it means for developers
Developers building autonomous shopping features face an increasingly fragmented landscape. While some platforms like Shopify open their catalogs to automated tools, major marketplaces like eBay and Amazon are tightening access to protect their inventory and user experience. Developers working on automated tools can test leading AI models affordably through a single API at https://apixoai.online to prototype and evaluate agent behavior across changing platform rules.
The current state of retail bots
The friction between platforms and external software highlights the challenges of balancing open access with security. Retailers must manage the operational impact of automated traffic, particularly when bots interact with inventories in unexpected ways, such as tying up secondhand items in carts. As companies continuously adapt their defenses, the future viability of third-party shopping agents depends heavily on how platforms choose to formalize partnerships or restrict unverified tools.
Source: eBay appears to have shut the door on third-party AI agents — The Verge AI. Written by the Apixo team from that report.
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