Do eBay bidders have to pay up if they win an auction? We investigate as AK47 £5 note buyer wriggles out of £80,000 bill

A MAN has blasted eBay for not helping him recoup his £80,000 when a prankster refused to pay for the new polymer £5 he put on the bidding site – but is it the website’s responsibility to ensure financial transactions are honoured?

Gareth Wright revealed to The Sun that he felt disappointed because eBay would not compensate him, after the winning bidder told him he couldn’t pay for the £5 note as “he was waiting for a shipment of Cocaine” to come in.

Gareth’s fiver was not only one of the early edition notes, but the AK47 aspect gave it an extra mobster appeal.

So if you make the winning bid on eBay, do you HAVE to pay up? In short, there’s nothing the online auction site can do to enforce payment.

eBay told The Sun: “Users enter into a binding contract whenever they bid on eBay.

“If an item remains unpaid once bidding is complete, sellers can open up an unpaid item case via eBay’s Resolution Centre.

“If this still doesn’t resolve the matter, eBay can take action to restrict the buyer’s account.”

He was also shown how to open an ‘Unpaid Item’ case in order to get a refund for the fees.

When a case like this is closed, the buyer may see their account being restricted or suspended.

Jenny Keefe from MoneySavingExpert.com told us: “Ah, the non-paying bidder: the bane of many eBay sellers’ lives.

“Whether you’re selling something for 99p or £80,000, it’s always frustrating when someone doesn’t pay up.

“If a buyer doesn’t pay within two days, the seller can open an ‘Unpaid Item’ dispute. In reality, eBay won’t force the bidder to buy the goods.

“It’ll just put a black mark on the buyer’s account – if they habitually don’t pay, they may get banned from the site.

“It’s worth bearing in mind though that when you win an eBay bid, you technically enter into a binding contract.

“So the seller could be within their rights to take this to the small claims court for breach of contract.

“We’re not aware of any cases like this though and getting anything is far from guaranteed, so they should think carefully about whether they want the hassle, and whether it’s worth it.”

We also spoke to solicitor Alistair Veck about Gareth’s case.

He told us: “In this case a contract was formed for purchase of a £5 note for £80,000.

“As the purchaser is refusing to pay as agreed there is now a ‘breach of contract’ and so the vendor would be entitled to damages.

“The issue arises as to how the damages are calculated.

“Compensation is calculated so that the wrong person is put in the position he would have been in if the contract had not been breached.

“However, there are several ways of doing this.

“One way of calculating damages would be for the purchaser to pay the £80,000 agreed as this is what the vendor has ‘lost’ as a result of the breach.

“However, another way of calculating the damages is to view it that the vendor is still in possession of the valuable item that he could sell on again.”

Legally, Gareth is in exactly the same position he was in before he put the fiver on eBay. He’s lost nothing.

eBay says it encourages communication between its members but don’t allow anything that would contravene eBay policies, including abusive language.

eBay told us that when Gareth contacted them when the listing was still live, it advised him to cancel the bid if there were any concerns, and gave the option to send a second chance offer if the highest bidder didn’t pay.