Are trading platforms legally required to provide buyer/seller protection?
<p>Private transactions are not subject to statutory consumer guarantees. Still, trading platforms where private buyers and sellers meet (e.g. eBay, or TradeMe in New Zealand) do provide some level of protection for both of them and dispute resolution process.</p>

<p>Are they legally obliged to do that in any English-centric jurisdiction? Or do they do that merely because it repels crooks and makes their service more attractive to honest traders?</p>

<p>In other words, would it be a legal business to run a trading platform that only <em>matches</em> buyers and sellers but does not give them any guarantees beyond that?</p>

<h2>Probably</h2>
<p><a href="/questions/tagged/australia" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;australia&#39;" rel="tag">australia</a></p>
<p>Such a service platform would be subject to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Consumer_Law" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Australian Consumer Law</a> unless <em>all</em> their transactions are more than $40,000 and not for household consumption and not motor vehicles.</p>
<p>Therefore, the service they provide is subject to the <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/consumer-rights-guarantees/consumer-guarantees" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Consumer Guarantees</a> which for services are that they must:</p>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li><p>be provided with acceptable care and skill or technical knowledge and taking all necessary steps to avoid loss and damage</p>
</li>
<li><p>be fit for the purpose or give the results that you and the business had agreed to</p>
</li>
<li><p>be delivered within a reasonable time when there is no agreed end date.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>When some of the best known platforms are providing buyer/seller protection I would not like to be making the argument that one that doesn’t is “taking all necessary steps to avoid loss and damage”.</p>

business consumer-protection