eBay CEO Jamie Iannone and EU Commissioner Didier Reynders Discuss the Platform Economy

January 29, 2021

eBay CEO Jamie Iannone recently met European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders, who is leading on consumer policy and data protection. They discussed consumer safety on online marketplaces, our response to challenges around COVID, the circular economy and eBay’s leading role in enabling SMEs to develop their online business.

One of eBay's main priorities is providing a trusted online marketplace for European consumers and small-and-medium sized enterprises trading online. In 2018, eBay was one of the founding signatories of the EU Product Safety Pledge. Jamie Iannone not only reiterated eBay's continued support for the EU Product Safety Pledge, but also called on other stakeholders to join the pledge. It has the potential to become an effective platform to further increase and streamline cooperation between leading e-commerce platforms, agencies and consumer organisations with the objective to significantly improve consumer safety.

Jamie Iannone also informed the Commissioner of the recent launch of eBay's Regulatory Portal. The Portal provides regulators and market surveillance authorities around the world with a number of features, including the automatic removal of reported listings of dangerous products and direct communication channels with sellers and buyers. Through the Portal authorities can warn buyers directly in case of product call-backs or other risks.

eBay will continue to work with the European Commission in support of any upcoming legislative initiatives that seek to ensure the online safety of EU citizens and SMEs, while allowing them to reap the full potential of the digital economy.

This meeting is part of eBay's efforts to engage in a constructive dialogue with the EU institutions contributing to the policy debate and amplifying the voice of eBay-enabled SMEs. We exist to drive economic opportunity for individuals and entrepreneurs, and therefore our objective is to ensure the policy framework takes their needs into account.