eBay's "Safe Payments Policy," which prohibits sellers from requesting payment via services not approved by eBay, will likely be used to prohibit eBay merchants from using Google's just-announced Google Checkout, according to AuctionBytes.com. eBay spokesperson Hani Durzy is quoted as saying the policy allows eBay to evaluate whether online-payment systems are appropriate for eBay.

According to eBay's policy, approval is in part dependent on "whether the payment service has a substantial historical track record of providing safe and reliable financial and/or banking related services (new services without such a track record generally cannot be promoted on eBay)."

"We don't know what it (Google Checkout) will look like, we haven't seen it. If it is introduced as a beta test, it probably doesn't meet our definition of having a historical track record," Durzy is quoted as saying. Google Checkout is one of very few Google products not introduced as a beta.

When eBay's policy was instituted in October, sellers wondered whether it was a prophylactic measure against a forthcoming Google payment service, writes AuctionBytes.com.