We are setting up an online marketplace like eBay, Amazon, Etsy etc. We are not charging a listing fee and we are not taking any commissions from the vendors. Our main focus is to be the administrator to the marketplace. We are setup using Woo Commerce and WC Vendors Pro to allow vendors to sell on our site. We are looking to integrate PayPal Adaptive Payments to pay our vendors in real-time.
Below are the questions we have in regard to the online marketplace:
Is our website responsible for any liabilities? We are just trying to be the umbrella of bringing many vendors together.
How does tax work with a multi-vendor site? Are vendors responsible for the tax? We have the tax section available for use.
If PayPal is being used, are we responsible for fraud or non-shipments.
Just trying to get a better understanding of running an online multi-vendor marketplace.
I highly recommend you hire a good lawyer experienced in Internet affairs, especially online sales. I would not trust any opinion of strangers on the web.
I would like to suggest you to make a list first for what is the Tax terms and conditions for international market like in which countries you are about to setup market place.
then what is the required things to do… and what security things to do because every market place has different different conditions and if there is specialist available from AMAZON, EBAY… then you should take advice from them first because they are from the your marketplace area and they knows better.