Ebay has announced some of the most stringent measures in its 12-year history to target unreliable and fraudulent sellers, marking what executives of the world’s biggest e-commerce company concede will be a controversial bid to revive slowing growth.

The changes are part of a broader overhaul by John Donahoe, who takes over as chief executive officer at the end of March last year, to move beyond the “flea market” culture on which the company was founded, but which has started to hold it back as internet commerce has become mainstream.