Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority has opened a formal Phase 1 investigation into eBay’s acquisition of Depop, the peer-to-peer resale platform that became the primary digital wardrobe for Gen Z’s vintage obsession. The deal, which closed in 2021 but fell below the CMA’s jurisdictional thresholds at the time, now faces renewed scrutiny after a regulatory reassessment determined that the transaction’s impact on the secondhand fashion market warrants a full review. The CMA has until early August to decide whether to clear the deal, seek remedies, or escalate to a more probing Phase 2 investigation.
For fashion brands and retailers operating in the resale space, the CMA’s decision carries direct commercial implications. A cleared deal would likely accelerate eBay’s investment in Depop’s infrastructure, potentially pulling more secondhand volume away from brand-owned resale programmes. A blocked or conditioned deal, conversely, would preserve the current fragmentation — a landscape in which independent resale platforms continue to compete for market definition. The fashion industry, which has only begun to understand resale as a strategic category rather than a cultural afterthought, will be watching closely.
At the heart of the review is a structural question about competition in the resale market. The secondhand apparel sector is projected to reach $350 billion globally by 2028, and the concentration of that growth among a shrinking number of platforms has attracted regulatory attention across multiple jurisdictions. Critics of the Depop acquisition argue that eBay’s ownership eliminates a potential competitor before it could have scaled to challenge eBay’s own resale dominance. Supporters counter that Depop’s distinct user base and curatorial culture make it a complementary asset rather than a suppressed rival, and that the combined entity faces robust competition from Vestiaire Collective, The RealReal, Vinted, and emerging peer-to-peer platforms.
The timing is significant. Depop has evolved considerably since its acquisition, growing from a niche marketplace for curated vintage into a resale ecosystem that processed over $2 billion in gross merchandise value in 2025. Its user base remains predominantly young — over 90 percent of active sellers are under 26 — and its cultural influence within secondhand fashion is disproportionate to its market share. eBay, meanwhile, has been repositioning its own fashion category as a destination for authenticated luxury resale, creating a potential overlap between the platforms that the CMA will need to examine closely.
