eBay Germany opened a new eBay/Paypal Pop-up store on December 6.  The store attracted well over 2,000 visitors in just four days.  Guests were able to walk through the virtual eBay Inc. shopping experience, while also utilizing QR codes to shop for real items from ebay.de.

On the morning of December 11, eBay.de, PayPal and the American Chamber of Commerce jointly organized a breakfast at the newly erected eBay Pop-Up Store.  The breakfast was widely attended by many key stakeholders, including Members of the German Parliament and their staff, the State Secretary of the Ministry of Economics and Technology, the U.S. Ambassador to Germany and various members from the industry.  Martin Tschopp, Managing Director of eBay Germany, opened the event with a keynote address on the future of online commerce.

A panel discussion moderated by Carsten Kestermann, head of Public Affairs for Software AG followed the breakfast.  The panel included two highly regarded Members of the German Parliament, Thomas Jarzombek and Brigitte Zypries, as well as Arnulf Keese, Managing Director of PayPal Germany.  The discussion focused on the future of “Internet politics” in Germany.  All participants agreed that there is continued need for coordinated, cross-departmental IT policy-making, and that outdated regulatory approaches must be urgently reviewed and adapted to the reality of this digital economy.  Contributing an acute point from the floor, the German Banking Association BdB, confirmed that after SEPA implementation, a direct debit mandate via the Internet will be accepted by the banking industry.

Overall the event was a great success from the perspective of the German Government Relations team and all involved benefited from an informed, engaged and interested audience.