Shill bidding policy

Shill bidding is when someone makes an offer on an item to artificially increase its price, desirability, or search standing.

When someone making an offer on an item knows the seller, they might have information about the seller's item that other shoppers aren't aware of. This could create an unfair advantage or cause another shopper to pay more than they should. We want to maintain a fair marketplace for all our users, and as such, shill bidding is prohibited on Donnate. For more details on what constitutes shill bidding, please see our full policy guidelines below.

Shill bidding is when sellers – or someone they know – place an offer on their item to drive the price up. This is called artificial bidding. Often, the people placing bids have certain information about the seller's item that other shoppers aren't aware of. To make sure no one gets an unfair advantage, shill bidding is prohibited on Donnate.

People who know the seller – such as family members, flatmates, or employees – can't bid on that seller's items, but they can use options like Buy It Now that don't involve bidding. Sellers with employees have to make sure their staff are aware of this policy and what the consequences are for breaking the rules.

Shill bidding is also illegal in many places around the world and carries severe penalties. Before selling items on Donnate, please keep the following guidelines in mind:

Seller rules:

• Although a seller is allowed to have more than one Donnate account, there can't be any interaction between the accounts, especially involving offers or feedback. Your information also has to be accurate and consistent.
• Sellers can't make offers on their own listings.
• Friends and people you know who'd like to buy your items may do so as long as they use a fixed price option like Buy It Now. Making an offer on your item for any other reason isn't permitted.
• If you make an offer on some of your own listings, but you didn't know this was shill bidding, you're still responsible. Please understand that when you signed up with us, you agreed to follow the guidelines in the User Agreement and in all our policies.
• If your accounts were suspended for shill bidding because someone you know used them to list items, and then make offer on those items, you're still responsible. Your accounts can't be reinstated before completion of the suspension period. As a reminder, you need to keep your account information and password secure because you're ultimately responsible for anything that happens with your account. The User Agreement says that anyone under the age of 18 isn't allowed to use Donnate unless they're supervised by the adult or guardian who owns the account.

Activity on Donnate is required to:

• Follow all applicable laws
• Respect the rights of third parties
• Follow the Donnate User Agreement
• Follow this Donnate policy

If activity doesn’t meet these requirements, Donnate may take action consistent with applicable laws and the Donnate User Agreement and may even be legally required to do so. Such actions may include, as an example only: administratively ending listings or cancelling transactions; hiding or lowering the placement of listings in search results; restricting buying or selling; and account suspension.