From left to right: PayPal President Dan Schulman, Luxembourg PM Xavier Bettel, eBay Inc. President & CEO John Donahoe

Samuel Laurinkari, eBay Inc.’s Manager Government Relations EU, spoke at a conference organised by the European Intellectual Property Institutes Network (EIPIN) in Maastricht on 29 January.

The conference was part of EIPIN’s (network of leading European research institutes focused on Intellectual Property Law) regular meetings, and focused in particular on Intellectual Property in the Innovation Society.

eBay Inc. this week participated at the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) Senior Officials first public private dialogue on services at Clark Freeport Zone, Philippines with the focus: Opportunities in digital trade.

Sassoon Grigorian, Director of Public Policy, Asia Pacific presented on the emergence of Internet enabled trade and policies to promote further growth, and emerging platforms that will create additional opportunities including the shared economy, the blockchain and biometrics.

This week, EU and US negotiators are meeting in Brussels for the 8th round of negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The official negotiations are supported by a number of fringe events during the week.

eBay supports efforts to remove restrictions for technology-enabled transatlantic trade and therefore actively participates in stakeholder activities throughout the week.

The Code Cadets

Recently eBay Inc. hosted a visit by The Code Cadets, a group of Australian students at Canberra Grammar School who have a passion and deep interest in computer science and information technology. The visit was part of a 2 week tour visiting high tech companies in Silicon Valley.

Digital currencies are changing the global payments landscape and are under a spotlight in Australia. As such, PayPal lodged a submission to the Senate’s Digital Currency Inquiry in Australia on 24 December 2014. PayPal’s submission highlighted that there is a clear distinction between Digital Wallets (e.g. PayPal) and Digital Currencies (e.g. BitCoin). Digital Currencies provide innovation and market opportunities; however they appear to be currently escaping regulatory frameworks in Australia and in other jurisdictions.

PayPal’s key recommendations:

On December 10^th, the Honorable President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, awarded two eBay India merchants the ‘FIEO Online Retail exporter of the year,’ at the 14^th FIEO Niryat Shree and Niryat Bandhua Awards held in New Delhi.  This is the first annual  Online Retail Exporter of the Year award, being created and approved by The President’s Office this year.

While participating in two recent events, Hanne Melin of eBay Inc. Public Policy Lab discussed the importance of consumer empowerment and the Internet of Things. Although some believe the Internet of Things is still just a concept, it is already here and estimated by Gartner to encompass 30 billion connected devices by 2020. These “connected devices” are made up of a physical object plus embedded processing, actuators and sensors plus connectivity and the Internet.

In late November eBay Inc.’s Public Policy Lab supported a roundtable organised by the TRPC titled “ASEAN epayments and commerce alignment” which included more than 60 representatives from industry, and government policy makers including representatives of the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) Secretariat. The roundtable was held in Jakarta, Indonesia.

This roundtable followed a similar roundtable held at the APEC Secretariat in Singapore earlier this year.