Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee Written evidence submitted by Gumtree.com
Background to Gumtree.com
Gumtree.com is the UK’s number one classifieds website. It has a presence in 48 cities across the UK and attracts eight times as many visits as its closest competitor. Gumtree helps to connect 13.7 million people across the UK to buy, sell, find or swap everything from cars, jobs and property, to goods and services in their local area.
The site receives 33.6 million visits per month, has 7.9 million monthly unique users, and at any one time there are approximately 1.8 million ads live on the website.
The website is split into a number of categories, the largest ones being motors, goods for sale, jobs, and property. One of the smaller categories is “Pets for Sale”.
Pets for Sale Category
The pets category on Gumtree has recently undergone a number of changes, and as a result it is much more tightly controlled than previously. The site currently surpasses all UK legal requirements, and the changes have been made in consultation with leading pets/animal charities. The changes aren’t exhaustive, and are part of an ongoing upgrade programme across the site.
The changes have meant that the number of live ads on the site within the pets category has reduced dramatically. This time in 2011 there were approximately 70,000 live ads—compared to 15,000 today—and the site has grown by 30% this year. There appears to be a correlation with the decline in numbers on Gumtree and increased pet sections on other websites.
Recent Developments in the Pets for Sale Category
Reduced the number of categories
Gumtree has limited the category to only allow birds, dogs, small furries, cats, fish, and other listings. Categories that have been removed include farm animals and exotic animals. Shortly the small furries section will be split further to organise ads by individual animals eg hamsters and gerbils.
Compulsory user registration
Every user that posts an advert within the “Pets for Sale” category needs to pre-register with Gumtree.com. Entering personal details is compulsory and will be shared with law enforcement authorities should it be requested.
Updated rules for posting an advert
When posting an advert in the category, all users see a pop-up box which outlines the posting rules. All users must agree to these before proceeding, and the agreement will be shared with law enforcement authorities if required. Key rules are:
No animals under eight weeks.
No commercial breeders and stud services.
No puppy farms.
No individuals involved in animal welfare abuses of any kind.
Compulsory advert requirements
All new adverts need to include a photo of their animal for sale.
Introduced accounts for rehoming charities
To help prevent puppy farmers and breeders from using the site, no user is allowed to post more than two litters of animals a year. The new exception to this is animal welfare charities that choose to use the site to help re-home pets, something that is proving successful since its introduction. All charities opting in to this are fully-verified before being accepted onto the programme.
New on-site advice and guidance
Gumtree.com now includes updated information and advice about buying animals online. This advice has been shaped with help from leading animal welfare organisations, and going forward Gumtree hopes to update this regularly with more animal-specific information. This aimed at both buyers and sellers.
On rotation, Gumtree also carries banner ads linking directly to a number of the charities that the site regularly consults.
Monitoring of the Site
Gumtree.com also has a dedicated team that monitors the site, they will remove adverts that they believe indicate animal cruelty or illegal practices and can share information with authorities for investigation if requested eg dogs listed with docked tails, animals suspected of being current working dogs.
Potential Impact on Gumtree if New Legislation is Enforced
Without knowing the detail of any potential new legislation, the below is just a range of options which Gumtree may consider should the law change.
Gumtree.com has no legal responsibility over the ads posted to the site; the onus of responsibility is with the seller. However Gumtree chooses to enforce certain rules and regulations for sellers to abide by
If the legislation requires a high level of management of ads and proactive checking of registers/licences etc it may render the category commercially unviable—and closure of the category would be a real option
Systems can be programmed to reflect new changes where viable—the cost of making the changes will have to be factored in to the overall commercial viability of the category—closure could be an option
Gumtree has no control over who buys via the site, only on the ads posted—therefore any controls impacting on the buying process would be extremely hard to manage
If a blanket ban on the online sale of pets is enforced, this would mean immediate closure of the category. However we envisage some of the following may happen which we would need to heavily monitor and create new rules to prevent:
Pet listings move to other categories for sale
Ads appear but giving away animals or swapping for other items—therefore not “technically” selling them
A form of “code/understanding” develop, where a pet is listed in a different category for free—but payment may arise once the buyer and seller are in direct contact away from the site
November 2012