Online auctions giant eBay has pulled down all Miley Cyrus tickets from its site, but the company denies it was pressured to do so by her representatives.

The ‘tween singing sensation’s entire upcoming tour is utilizing paperless tickets, a controversial move that has led to complaints from brokers and fans for being an inconvenience and which contributed to lagging initial sales. Cyrus’s handlers made no secret of their desire to keep as many tickets out of the hands of brokers and scalpers for this tour, unlike her last one two years ago which was a public relations disaster. The Cyrus camp is scalping some tickets itself, however.

eBay has removed tickets in the past, most recently for the canceled Michael Jackson concerts, but the decision to take down Cyrus’s tickets is different because the secondary ticket industry is in the midst of grappling over what to do with paperless tickets. Some venues, such as the Alltel Arena in Arkansas, have gone entirely paperless, partly in an act of defiance against brokers.

“eBay decided to remove the listings of its own accord, there was no communication or involvement with Cyrus’s representatives,” a spokesperson for the company told TicketNews. “This was done under eBay’s presale policy, which states that the seller must deliver the item within 30 days of purchase. In the case of the Cyrus concerts that cannot be achieved right now. There are also concerns around fulfillment of these tickets as well as buyer experience similar to our decision on keeping them off StubHub.”

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Brokers and other sellers began receiving emails about the decision to remove the tickets last week:

Unfortunately, we had to remove your listing because the following information violates our policy:

Please note that eBay has strict guidelines for pre-sale listings in order to protect our members from potentially poor buying experiences. As such you must guarantee that any Pre-sale item, in this case actual paper concert tickets, will be available for shipping within 30 days from an auction’s end date.

The terms and conditions contained in a listing need to comply with all sections of the eBay User Agreement and listing policies. Listings for items that the seller does not yet have in his or her possession are considered “presale” listings. Presale listings are permitted as long as they meet the following requirements:

– The seller needs to guarantee that the item will be available for shipping within 30 days from the start date of the listing.
– The seller needs to state in the listing (using the default font HTML size 3 or larger) that the item is a presale item and will be shipped within 30 days from the date the listing starts.

eBay said it will relist the tickets as the launch of the tour in mid-September grows closer.

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“Once we get within the 30 day window of each show, the listings will be allowed on eBay with tight monitoring from eBay trust and safety, as well as seller and buyer messaging communicating the nature of the paperless ticket,” the spokesperson said.

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