eBay Struggles with Widespread Outage, Disrupting Transactions and API Access

The e-commerce platform eBay, a giant in online auctions and fixed-price listings, faced widespread disruptions beginning late Sunday, April 26, 2026, extending into Monday, as users across the globe reported severe technical issues. The eBay outage, which has crippled essential features of the site, particularly the API, has left many buyers and sellers frustrated, struggling to access critical functions, including search features, listings, and checkout processes. 

As users faced slow page loads, failed transactions, and difficulty completing sales, a series of unverified reports surfaced suggesting that the hacktivist group 313 Team was behind the massive denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, claiming responsibility for the outage. While the true cause remains unconfirmed by eBay, the timing and scale of the disruption have fueled speculation that a cyberattack was involved. 

The Scope of the eBay Outage

The eBay outage first began to affect eBay users on the afternoon of April 26, when they began reporting issues with the platform’s functionality. According to Downdetector, a popular service that tracks online outages, the spike in complaints reached around 3:30 PM ET, with the situation worsening the evening. As of 10:30 PM ET, more than 1,300 outage reports were logged, although the number eventually decreased to about 600 by 11:50 PM ET. 

Users complained that essential functions like search were malfunctioning, and pages were loading extremely slowly. “I can’t even search for anything or complete a purchase,” one frustrated user posted on social media. Others echoed similar concerns, noting that critical transactions were unable to be completed, with error messages preventing them from checking out. 

Sellers also voiced their frustrations, noting that they could not access the API, which is crucial for the functioning of third-party tools used to manage listings, inventory, and sales. “It’s been nearly 6 hours since the API went down, and we have no word from support,” one seller wrote, emphasizing the financial impact of the outage. 

Social Media Users Complain About the Outage

While eBay has not officially confirmed the cause of the outage, rumors quickly began circulating on social media that the hacktivist group 313 Team was responsible for a DDoS attack targeting the platform. DDoS attacks, which flood a website with traffic to overwhelm its servers and take it offline, have become a frequent tactic for hacktivist groups in recent years.

The group, which has previously targeted high-profile organizations, allegedly posted a claim on various forums, taking credit for the disruption. However, this attribution has not been independently verified, and eBay has not provided details about the nature of the attack. The company’s official status page displayed no alerts of a cyberattack, showing only minor updates on the system’s functionality. 

Despite these official updates, the community’s response has been vocal, with many users continuing to report issues well into the night. One individual posted, “It’s not just down for me, it’s down for everyone. Is this part of a bigger attack targeting e-commerce sites?” 

With eBay’s customer support channels largely silent or offering only generic responses, users took to social media to express their frustration. The company’s Instagram account, where many users had previously reached out for help, quickly became a forum for complaints. One commenter wrote, “Brooo you’re down—come on, get up! I need to pay for an auction.” Others left similar messages, questioning the reliability of the platform and demanding answers.