Ebay blacklists Google checkout

Ebay is preventing its sellers from using the Google Checkout service.

Google Checkout allows consumers to buy products online without having to reveal any information to the seller. The search engine started offering the service to online stores last month and it previously has been used to pay for Google advertisements and Google's video store.

Google Checkout is seen as a competitor for Ebay's Paypal service, which allows for both payments between individuals as wells as payments between consumers and merchants.

Citing Paypal's ease of use and fraud protection features, Ebay on the 'Rules for sellers' section of its website "strongly encourages sellers to offer payments through Paypal".

Further down on the same page, Ebay lists Google Checkout among a series of services that are prohibited. Offering buyers to use any of the blacklisted payment services can result in a cancellation of the listing, limits on account privileges, account suspension and loss of PowerSeller status.

Google Checkout lacks a track record as a secure and reliable consumer payment service, Ebay spokesperson Catherine England told vnunet.com.

She acknowledged that Google by itself is an established brand that has consumer confidence, and that Google has been using the payment service before launching it as a merchant offering last week.

"But making sure that each payment model offers substantial protection is important for our buyers and sellers. We are using the same criteria to evaluate all payment services."

Ebay in addition to Paypal permits another 13 payment services to be used, including Allpay.net and Checkfree.

Google Checkout will likely be added as an approved payment service once it has established a track record, England added. She was unable to say when that could be the case. The e-commerce website plans to continue monitoring the service and will listen to feed back from its users.

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