Searching for a used car on Facebook Marketplace may seem a bit more sketchy on the surface than use Craigslist, but those who want to make sure there is a way to game the system. It’s not uncommon for dealers to sell duplicate cars, often at ridiculously low prices in multiple locations. It’s annoying at best and predatory at worst, so the good news is that Facebook will cut businesses off the platform starting this coming February. Well, sort of.
A Reddit user on r / car shared the body of an email they received from Facebook’s parent company Meta, explaining that business accounts will no longer be allowed to list cars and real estate in the coming months:
You just received this email: “Starting January 30, 2023, Meta will no longer support the ability for sellers to create vehicle & property/rental listings using their Facebook Business Page, along with the Vehicles tab and the Manage Inventory tab in markets where this feature is currently available. Free person-to-person listings for vehicle & property/rental listings will remain available on Marketplace. Your ability to reach your audience through advertising hasn’t changed either. We are simply changing the way inventory can be displayed in the future. “
The important detail here is that private transactions are not going away, and unfortunately neither is advertising. That latter is a real shame, because the ads on Facebook Marketplace are weird. Like this one below, shows up when I search Honda Civic near me:
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60% off
Jachs NY Fall Sale 60% Off
Styles starting at $29
Layer up with Jachs NY’s fall sale—60% off fall styles. Shirts start at $29, and with the promo code, you can curate a whole layered look.
Yikes! Anyway, initially this appears to be a good step, as those who would prefer to work with a dealer can of course still do so via the likes of Cars.com and AutoTrader. Though I’m positive some will masquerade as people, and I know this because plenty do already. Facebook currently marks dealerships as such with a tag next to the vehicle’s location, and in my searches I’ve come across sales agent car not correctly labeled.
Furthermore, the way Facebook describes the move raises further questions about the actual purpose of the policy. Follow Official support page on the subject, all existing listings from business accounts will be deleted on January 30. However, Facebook also adds that “while the ability to post vehicle, real estate and rentals from Facebook business Pages will no longer be available on Marketplace, you can continue to reach car and home buyers or renters on Facebook in other ways, including “creating a Marketplace listing from your personal profile”.
So, does Facebook expect agents who previously used business accounts to simply publish their listings as fakes? More importantly, is Facebook really stopping them from doing so? Such activity appears to go against the site’s own Terms of Service, although the language there is also a bit vague. “Profiles are best for personal use, not for businesses or organizations”, Meta Business Help Center gently suggested.
Removing the agency’s presence from the Facebook Marketplace seemed like a good idea at first, but only time will tell if this plan will actually achieve that goal. Of course, Meta is happy to advise commercial sellers to buy ads as an alternative. We’ve reached out to Meta for comment and will update this story with anything we learn.
