Until February, items listed by UK sellers would automatically appear if a simple search was carried out on the US eBay.com. Now, only US-based items appear unless the customer uses the 'advanced search' option.

A number of UK eBay sellers contacted the BBC to complain about the change, which they said had hit their businesses hard.

eBay says UK sellers can create a second account on the bigger US site and list items separately there. However, they would then have to pay two listings fees to eBay.