Custom HTML listing description blocked by eBay API – "JavaScript not allowed" error (March 2026)

[gambtec]

Hi everyone,

I’m experiencing a sudden issue when trying to submit listings via GarageSale
to eBay.de. Starting today (March 24, 2026), all my listings with custom HTML
descriptions are being rejected with the following error message:

“JavaScript nicht zulässig. Ihr Angebot darf kein JavaScript (.cookie*,
cookie, replace(, IFRAME, META, oder Includes), Cookies oder base href
enthalten.”

(English: “JavaScript not allowed. Your listing must not contain JavaScript
(.cookie, cookie(, replace(, IFRAME, META, or Includes), Cookies or base href.”)

What I’ve already checked and ruled out:

• No tags anywhere in the HTML
• No JavaScript functions (replace, cookie, etc.)
• No IFRAME, no META tags, no base href
• No ::before CSS rules with content: property
• No align-items: baseline (contains “base”)
• No href=“#” links
• No @media queries
• Tested with a completely empty listing (just “Test” as title, no description)
  → this worked fine, so the issue is in the HTML content

My HTML uses only:

• Inline styles (no block)
• Basic table layout
• Standard HTML tags (div, table, td, p, h1, span)

I also noted that eBay had a search outage yesterday evening (March 23, 2026)
– could eBay have tightened their content filter rules after that incident?

Questions:

1. Has anyone else experienced this since today?
2. Does GarageSale’s API submission use stricter filters than eBay.de’s
   own listing form?
3. Are there any CSS properties that eBay’s API specifically blocks
   (e.g. display:flex, justify-content, flex-shrink)?
4. Is there a way to see the exact raw HTML that GarageSale sends to eBay
   before submission, so I can pinpoint the trigger?

Any help is much appreciated!

Best regards,
gambtec (Berlin)

[kristian]

If this wasn’t just a temporary issue and you are still getting the same error message from eBay, you might want to checkout this help chapter:

Troubleshooting eBay Error 240

(Paragraph 5, 6 and 8)

My guess is that you are using a word or term that triggers eBay. Yes, their filters are stricter if you are using a third party app like GarageSale.

Don’t forget to also check your footer in the GarageSale preferences > General. (in case you use your own custom footer)

GarageSale itself does not use any forbidden code or terms.

[Vaguery]

I just had this message pop up when launching a cookbook, and it turned out that the sophisticated search was “the word ‘cookie’ appeared in the listing text”.

I didn’t remove the word, but I did put whitespace around it (in the markdown I was editing), and somehow that changed the response.

update: this exact thing just happened twice more (I am listing a box of old cookbooks) and apparently what’s happening is the word cookie cannot appear in a run-on markdown text passage (or at the first character of a line), but if I put empty lines around it so it’s set as a paragraph of its own it is allowed.

[Vaguery]

I expect it’s all based on a vibe-coded regular expression and is totally random.