If you take them to court and win you get a piece of paper which says they should give you your money back. And that's all. Enforcing that piece of paper requi

If you take them to court and win you get a piece of paper which says they should give you your money back. And that's all. Enforcing that piece of paper requires a further judgement and may require bailiffs and/or lawyers. At this point you will have paid out significant costs with no guarantee that you'll get any of your money back. It's fairly standard for small businesses to dodge debts. A company can declare itself insolvent and debts are either written off or a tiny percentage of the amount due is paid out. The directors can then start another company. Rinse and repeat. But taking a company like Ebay to small claims is very risky anyway. It's highly likely the T&Cs - which no one reads - are vague enough to allow a variety of defences while still technically being within the law. You'd need a good lawyer to argue otherwise, and that won't be cheap. Really, this kind of abuse should be handled at the regulatory level, with stiff penalties for systematic abuse of obligations, enforced by strong laws that don't allow for easy legal excuses.