eBay Sends 20 Sellers to Washington to Lobby Legislators

eBay sent 20 small businesses who sell on its marketplace to Washington, DC, to lobby their legislators as part of its 13th annual Advocacy Day event. The focus of this year’s “DC Fly-in” event was online sales tax and trade policies.

Some top eBay executives joined the sellers arriving from 16 states, including the head of eBay Marketplaces Americas Scott Cutler and the Vice President of Seller and Marketplace Operations Bob Kupbens.

eBay, sellers, and lawmakers used the hashtag #DCFlyin18 to tag their social networking posts relating to the event.

Announcement follows:

eBay recently hosted its 13th annual Advocacy Day event, connecting small business owners with their representatives to discuss key issues affecting their businesses.

The eBay Government Relations team recently hosted 20 eBay small business owners from around the country in Washington, D.C. for our annual U.S. of eBay Advocacy Day event. On the heels of eBay filing an amicus brief with the Supreme Court on Internet Sales Tax, these eBay sellers from 16 states advocated for sound Internet sales tax and trade policy for all U.S. small businesses that sell on the eBay marketplace. The sellers were joined by key eBay executives, including Scott Cutler, SVP for the Americas region, Marie Oh Huber, eBay General Counsel, Cathy Foster, VP of Government Relations & Public Policy, Bob Kupbens, VP of Seller & Marketplace Operations, and Damien Hooper-Campbell, VP & Chief Diversity Officer for eBay.

The historic W Hotel in D.C. served as event headquarters and the day started with a panel featuring the Co-Chairs of the U.S. eCommerce Caucus, Rep. Brett Guthrie (R/KY) and Rep. Pete Aguilar (D/CA). The sellers and staff then left for the White House to discuss ecommerce public policy with key members of the Trump administration. Following a lunch presentation by Scott Cutler sharing the strategic vision for eBay as a global marketplace, eight groups of sellers, executives, and government relations staff headed to Capitol Hill and met with over 50 influential members of Congress and staff.

The Advocacy Day event culminated with our eBay Celebrates Small Business gathering. This highly anticipated party featured our 20 Small Business Ambassadors stationed at customized kiosks with their products on display and their eBay stores open. Over 300 people attended the event, including Members of Congress, congressional staff, tech company executives and other D.C. eBay stakeholders.

SOURCE: eBay Corporate Blog Post

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.