eBay Below Standard Fees in Seven Countries
Six of eBay's seven largest marketplaces publish a Below Standard surcharge, and all six raise it again after four or more consecutive months at that level. eBay France publishes no rate. This page compares the Below Standard surcharge and the item-not-as-described surcharge across the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Canada, France and Italy, taken from each marketplace's official seller fee page and verified on 25 and 26 July 2026. If you want the standard rates instead of the penalty rates, you can compare all seven marketplaces first.
What Below Standard costs in each marketplace
The headline number is not comparable across markets until you know what it applies to. Three marketplaces add points to the final value fee, one publishes higher absolute rates, and one charges a separate percentage of the whole sale.
| Marketplace | Below Standard | After four months | Applied to |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | +6% | +7% | final value fee |
| United Kingdom | +6 points | +7 points | final value fee |
| Germany | absolute rates, 12% becomes 18% | one further point | final value fee |
| Australia | 5.5% of the sale | 6.6% of the sale | total sale, all categories |
| Canada | +6% | +7% | final value fee |
| France | no rate published | not published | not published |
| Italy | +6 points | +7% | total amount of the sale |
eBay Italy's page gives a worked example: a commission of 11% plus EUR 0.35 becomes 17% plus EUR 0.35 at Below Standard, verified from the Italian business seller fee page on 26 July 2026.
Where each marketplace publishes the rate differs too. Italy carries it only on the business seller page, and the Italian private seller page contains no performance section at all. The UK page carries a publication date of 12 February 2026, the only one of the seven to date this particular section.
The four-month rule six marketplaces share
Every marketplace that publishes a rate uses the same threshold. Four or more consecutive months at Below Standard triggers a second, higher charge, which then applies until the seller level returns to Above Standard or better.
The timing is shared too. Assessment happens on the 20th of the month, and the fee applies to sales in the following calendar month. A seller who slips in January pays the surcharge on February sales, and a seller who recovers on 20 April stops paying from 1 May.
Nothing in this rule is marketplace specific, which is exactly what makes the differences in the rate itself easy to miss.
Australia does not surcharge the final value fee
Australia is the structural outlier. It adds nothing to the final value fee. It charges 5.5% of the total sale value, including GST, across all categories, rising to 6.6% after four or more consecutive months, verified from eBay Australia's selling fees page on 25 July 2026.
Two consequences follow. The charge applies to every category rather than only the affected ones, and it lands on the sale rather than on the fee, so it does not scale with the category rate the way a point addition does.
The second tier is also new. eBay Australia's page states that the raised fee for four or more consecutive months applies from 1 August 2026.
Wondering what this leaves you? See your Australia payout.
Germany publishes rates, not surcharges
Germany does not publish a surcharge at all. Its page publishes a second rate card: eBay Germany charges 18% at Servicestatus Unterdurchschnittlich for categories that cost 12% at standard status. The effect matches a six point addition, but because the page presents it as an absolute rate, it never appears in any list of surcharges.
After four or more consecutive months the rates rise by one further point. The fixed portion of the final value fee, EUR 0.35 or EUR 0.45 on orders above EUR 10, does not change at any status. Standard German rates are in our eBay Germany fee calculator.
France publishes no rate
Neither French seller fee page publishes a numeric increase for poor performance, and no time-based escalation appears on either. eBay France's seller performance policy page states that a seller at Performance insuffisante may be charged a higher final value fee, but it gives no percentage and defines no time tiers.
What France does publish is the opposite direction. A seller at Vendeur Top Fiabilite receives a 10% discount on the variable part of the final value fee, conditional on free domestic shipping, returns accepted for at least 30 days, same or next day handling, and tracked shipping on items of EUR 25 or more. The discount does not apply to the fixed per order fee.
The item-not-as-described surcharge is separate
A second surcharge applies where a seller's item-not-as-described rate is classed Very High, and it is not the same number as the Below Standard rate.
| Marketplace | INAD Very High | After four months |
|---|---|---|
| United States | +5% | +6% |
| United Kingdom | +4 points | +5 points |
| Germany | separate rate table | one further point |
| Australia | 5.5% | 6.6% |
| Canada | +5% | +6% |
| Italy | +4 points | +5% |
Two details matter more than the percentages. In the United States, Canada and Australia the two surcharges do not stack, so a seller who is both Below Standard and Very High pays only the Below Standard charge. And eBay Italy's page states that category final value fee caps do not limit its four point item-not-as-described increase, which lands on the total item price including shipping. Standard US rates are in our eBay US fee calculator.
Three marketplaces publish an exemption threshold
The United Kingdom, Germany and Italy publish the same exemption. None of the three charges the surcharge if the category had fewer than 10 claims in the assessment period, or if the rate falls below 1%. The equivalent US, Canadian and Australian pages do not carry it.
This matters most to low volume sellers in narrow categories, where a single dispute can move a percentage sharply without triggering any charge at all. The standard UK schedule is in our eBay UK fee calculator.
What to do if your rating drops
The assessment date is fixed, so the useful window is the days before the 20th rather than the month the charge lands. Recovery removes the surcharge from the following calendar month.
Two marketplaces state explicitly which levels are exempt. Canada does not apply the surcharge to Above Standard or Top-rated sellers, and Italy does not apply it to Sopra lo standard or Affidabilita Top sellers. Neither publishes a partial or tapered rate, so a seller either pays the charge in full or pays nothing.
Conclusion
Four things are worth carrying away from these seven rate cards. The four-month escalation threshold is identical everywhere it is published, so the calendar is the same even when the number is not. Australia charges on the sale rather than on the fee, which makes it the harshest structure at low category rates. Three marketplaces exempt categories with fewer than 10 claims, and three publish no exemption at all. And eBay France publishes no rate, which means a French seller cannot calculate the penalty in advance from any official page.
One practical point follows from the calendar. Because assessment falls on the 20th and the charge lands the following month, a seller who reads this in the second half of a month still has time to affect the next assessment rather than the current one.
Penalty rates sit on top of standard rates, and the standard rates differ by category, by store status and by market. A percentage on its own therefore says very little about what a Below Standard month costs on a specific listing. Running one real price through both schedules answers that in a way a rate card cannot.