What is Government Relations?

Government Relations is more than relationship building with the government. The Government Relations team serves as a point-of-contact for a wide variety of social, political and administrative groups and people. We serve this role not only in the US, but wherever eBay has a presence. As the largest marketplace outside of the US, and the largest member state of the European Union, Germany has an important role to play here. That’s why a dedicated eBay Government Relations team works at our company offices at Dreilinden in immediate vicinity to the German capital, Berlin.

Our main government policy focus is the regulatory framework for the eBay marketplace and eBay’s subsidiary companies. The legal framework for the eBay marketplace is very important for our users – for buyers and sellers alike. We represent business people and entrepreneurs of all sizes and everyday consumers…as well as all users of the Internet. To that end, eBay Government Relations monitors political discussions and contributes to the crafting of laws, which might impact the eBay Community.

The Government Relations Team therefore maintains relationships with a wide variety of people and organizations including Ministries, Members of Parliament and social groups, to share our unique knowledge of eCommerce. That said, we are only one voice in a large choir of interested parties and every decision is ultimately up to the lawmakers. Transparency, including this website, is one important aspect of our work.

Association Work:

We also work closely with associations, which allow interested groups and companies to share their views and reach compromises. eBay is a member of the following associations:

• German Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media, BITKOM
• Federal Association of the Digital Economy, BVDW
• American Chamber of Commerce in Germany (AmCham)
• Initiative D21
• Deutschland sicher im Netz e.V. (Germany safe in the Internet)
• media.net Berlin-Brandenburg
• Chamber of Industry and Commerce Potsdam (IHK) and its federal association (DIHK)

What can you do?

Important for our work as well as for the work of politicians is to
know the problems of the people affected by legislative measures. In
many cases, these are our users.

In the US, there is a long tradition of citizens being active in the political process through direct contact with their elected representatives. For example, they will send letters or make phone calls to share their views on policy issues. eBay users in the US make their voice heard through the “Main Street” program. This program enables our users to share their perspective with lawmakers. For our German members we have developed a contact tool. US citizens can join Main Street at: www.ebaymainstreet.com.