eBay announces ban on knives

9 February 2009 08:15pm

Online auction site eBay announced a ban on sales of all knives except cutlery knives after an investigation found illegal weapons were being traded.

The ban will come into force "as quickly as possible" on both eBay's UK and Ireland websites.

The announcement followed an investigation by the BBC's Watchdog programme in which researchers bought five knives, including a stealth knife and a dagger disguised as a pen, all of which were illegal to sell or carry in the UK.

It comes just days after Home Secretary Jacqui Smith launched an initiative with more than 20 retailers to ensure that knives are sold responsibly.

eBay had earlier admitted it needed to do more to protect its members. The company acknowledged that although the UK site did not have any illegal knives for sale by UK sellers, it was possible for UK buyers to see or purchase knives from international sellers.

Announcing the ban on knife sales, Mark Lewis, country manager for eBay (UK), said measures already in place were designed to make sure only legal knives were offered for sale.

"Our policies on weapons and knives go above and beyond the legal requirements set out by the Home Office," he said. "However, the laws surrounding the sales of knives are extremely complex and so we have decided that the best way to protect our members and achieve the safety guarantees they have come to expect from us is to remove and ban all knives, with the exception of cutlery knives, from our UK and Ireland sites.

"eBay's marketplace structure means that it will take time to work with our sellers to remove the knives currently for sale and prevent new listings from being posted. However, we are committed to achieving this as quickly as possible."

Alf Hitchcock, deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and the leading national police expert on knife crime, told Watchdog that eBay had a moral responsibility to make sure that people were not being killed or injured by the weapons.

The knives, which all cost less than £10, were sold by US sellers through eBay's site in the UK.

© The Press Association