Policy Papers

eBay monitors and is involved with many issues relevant to the eBay community.

Net Neutrality
eBay supports Net Neutrality legislation that will prohibit Network Operators from replacing the robust open Internet with "Pay to Play" private networks that will force out and discriminate against content and service providers that refuse to pay new tolls.

Protect Consumer Value and Retail Competition
In 2007, the US Supreme Court’s 5-4 Leegin decision overturned a century old ban on manufacturers setting a minimum price below which retailers cannot sell that manufacturer’s product. eBay believes that overturning this long-settled antitrust rule threatens pro-consumer retail competition and innovation and will lead to higher prices for consumer products. Congress should take action to restore the prohibition on retail price fixing.

Streamlined Sales Tax Project
eBay opposes raising taxes on the Internet or its users, as well as any attempt to impose remote sales tax collection burdens on the small businesses who can least afford it. This is certainly not the time to impose a major new tax burden on Internet vendors working to implement successful new business models, nor is it wise macro-economic policy to impose what is effectively a tax increase on American consumers.

Stolen Goods
eBay is committed to ensuring a safe, open, and transparent site for people to sell goods and services around the world. We work tirelessly to prevent stolen goods from being sold through the eBay marketplace.

Ticket Sales
eBay supports the elimination of restrictions on the resale of tickets to sporting and entertainment events. If done properly, the elimination of this barrier to e-commerce can result in increased competition, increased ticket availability, and better service to the event-going public.

Barriers to E-Commerce
eBay opposes artificially created barriers to e-commerce - most of which were designed to protect unnecessary “middlemen” in a transaction.

Auctioneering Regulations
There is no evidence that imposing new regulations and licensing requirements upon eBay or eBay sellers would provide any additional consumer protection. Instead, any new regulations would impose unneeded costs and burdens upon buyers and sellers alike.

Online Privacy
As international, federal and state policymakers wrestle with the difficult task of protecting online privacy, eBay serves as a leading resource on best practices to keep the online community safe. Any privacy legislation must ensure a safe and secure online environment, by providing a uniform technology neutral federal solution requiring broad disclosure principles for all online and offline business practices.

Affordable Health Insurance
eBay's “army of entrepreneurs“ faces the same challenges that impact all small business people, including access to quality and affordable private sector health insurance. We believe that energizing a marketplace by giving more consumers access to more choices for individual health insurance spurs competition and innovation.

Internet 'Broker' Tax Reporting
The Internal Revenue Service is considering a proposal that would require “brokers” to collect “gross proceeds” information on their users and report it to the IRS. As currently crafted, the proposal would only apply to brokers that effect the sale of personal property for individuals, which would not necessarily apply to the eBay marketplace. However, some IRS officials have proposed changing the definition of broker to apply to eBay. eBay believes everyone should pay the taxes they owe, and we do more than any Internet commerce site to educate small businesses on their tax obligations. But we believe that any IRS proposal to target under-reported income should apply to either ALL online and offline commercial intermediaries or ALL Internet commerce – not merely online auction sites.