According to an announcement on Monday by United States-based on-line auction website eBay, the option to accept payments via PayPal service will be mandatory for United Kingdom sellers beginning in April 2008, with the exception of auctions relating directly to the sale of motor vehicles.

The announcement claims that the move will help improve confidence as well as further reducing the limited amounts of fraud which occur on some types of transaction. Sellers with low feedback, or who list specific items, such as computer software are already required to accept payment via PayPal.

Under the new policy, sellers will however still be able to accept payments via other services, provided they are on eBay's approved list. Google Checkout, a competitor to PayPal in the field of retail payment services, is notably absent from the list of accepted payment methods.