eBay Inc. was formed as a sole proprietorship in September 1995 and was incorporated in California in May 1996. In April 1998, we reincorporated in Delaware, and in September 1998, we completed the initial public offering of our common stock. Our principal executive offices are located at 2025 Hamilton Avenue, San Jose, California, 95125, and our telephone number is (408) 376-7008. Unless otherwise expressly stated or the context otherwise requires, when we refer to “we,” “our,” “us,” or “eBay” in this annual report on Form 10-K, we mean eBay Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries. Notably, on February 13, 2020, we completed the sale of StubHub to viagogo for $4.05 billion in cash, subject to certain adjustments, and on July 20, 2020, we entered into a definitive agreement to transfer our Classifieds business to Adevinta ASA (“Adevinta”). We believe that the transaction with Adevinta will close by the end of the first quarter of 2021, subject to receipt of certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

eBay Inc. is a global commerce leader through our Marketplace platforms which connect millions of buyers and sellers in more than 190 markets around the world. The platforms include our online marketplace located at www.ebay.com and its localized counterparts, including off-platform businesses in South Korea, Japan and Turkey, as well as eBay’s suite of mobile apps. Our platforms are accessible through an online experience (e.g. desktop and laptop computers), iOS and Android mobile devices (e.g. smartphones and tablets) and our application programming interfaces (“APIs,” platform access for third party software developers).

As a global commerce leader and third-party marketplace, our technologies and services are designed to provide buyers choice and a breadth of relevant inventory from around the globe, and to enable sellers’ access to eBay’s 185147 million buyers worldwide. Our business model and pricing are designed so that our business is successful when our sellers are successful. We earn revenue primarily through fees collected on successfully closedpaid sales, and our growth drivers of managed paymentspayment processing and first-party advertising.

eBay’s strategy is to leverage technology to enhance the marketplace experience for our customers to drive growth in Gross Merchandise Volume (as discussed below, “GMV”(“GMV”), while increasing the rate of revenue growth through our managed payments and advertising initiatives and delivering healthy operating margins. Following the announcement of the StubHub and Classifieds transactions,In 2020, we stated our intention as an enterprise focused on our Marketplace platforms to embarkembarked on a multi-year journey to build more compelling category experiences for ourenthusiastic consumers, to become the partner of choice for sellers and to strengthen trust in relationships with buyers.buyers on our platforms. We derived a majority of GMV in 2021 from the following product categories — parts & accessories, consumer electronics and home & garden.

During 2021, we completed the migration of eBay’s managed payments has continued to expand and scale globally following the expiration of the PayPal Operating Agreement in July 2020,all markets, delivering buyers and sellers a simplified end-to-end payments experience. Starting with five of our largest markets — the U.S., U.K., Germany, Australia and Canada — we have focused on transitioning business sellers to the new payments platform, and we launched managed payments for consumer sellers in the fourth quarter of 2020. As a result, as of December 31, 2020 there were over 1 million sellers active in managed payments. We also announced the first quarter of 2021 expansion plans to France, Italy, and Spain, along with enablement for eBay for Charity sellers in the U.S. and U.K. to leverage the experience. Through managed payments, we’rewe are able to provide a simplerfrictionless experience for current and next-generation customers, consistent with today’s retail standards. We can offer buyers more flexibility and choice in how they’d like to pay and offer sellers a more streamlined way to run their businesses. We continue to be on track to intermediate payments for the majority of our sellers in 2021 and to complete the full roll-out for payments by 2022.

Our advertising business remains focused on growing our Promoted Listings (aofferings (our first-party advertising offering)products) while reducing non-strategic, third-party advertising. WeIn 2021, we launched three new products: Promoted Listings Express (a cost-per-acquisition product for auction listings), Promoted Listings Advanced (a cost-per-click product) and External Promoted Listings (an off-platform advertising product). These new products complement our existing first-party advertising offering, Promoted Listings Standard (a cost-per-acquisition product for fixed-priced listings). Through our portfolio of Promoted Listings offerings, we are providing sellers with data-driven recommendations to optimize their conversion and drive velocity, while testing and building more technology features to drive growth, position eBay as the seller’s platform of choice and surface relevant inventory to buyers.

We provide a number of features for our buyerssellers and sellersbuyers that align with our approach to becoming the partner of choice for sellers and drivingbuilding life-long, trusted buyer relationships. These offerings are designed to build trust and confidence on our platform and drive GMV.

In order to further strengthen our buyers’ confidence and trust in our services, we offer “eBay Money Back Guarantee,” which allows buyers to receive their money back if the item they ordered does not arrive, is faulty or damaged or does not match the listing. eBay Money Back Guarantee covers most items purchased on the eBay platform in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Australia, Canada, France, Italy and Australia,Spain through a qualifying payment method. In 2021, eBay also provides buyers with a “Best Price Guarantee,” which offers buyers in the U.S. 110% of the price difference if they find an item for less on a competitor’s website within 48 hours of making a purchase. In Australia, Best Price Guarantee beats deals from approved retailers by 5%, and in the U.K., offers price matching. In 2020, eBay launchedexpanded "Authenticity Guarantee," our newan independent authentication service, on allto more luxury categories and more markets. We now authenticate watches sold over $2,000 in the U.S., the U.K. and expandedGermany; select sneakers sold over $100 in the service toU.S., U.K., Germany, Australia and Canada; and select handbags sold over $500 in the collectible sneakers category, authenticating select sneaker styles and brands on the marketplace.U.S. Additionally, to meet consumer demand for top products, we expanded our eBay launchedRefurbished offering, a newdedicated destination to feature officially “Certified Refurbished” productsthat brings inventory from pre-selected brands and top brands.rated sellers with standardized condition grading.

OneBay also invests in product experiences that delight our customers and enhance the buying experience for our enthusiasts. Our Collection tool allows enthusiasts to view, manage and to track the value of their trading card collection. eBay has increased the tools available for our Motors enthusiasts by expanding the My Garage feature to Canada, Italy, France and Spain and adding a motorcycle parts finder to the fitment shopping experience. In the U.S., we added our entire parts and accessories inventory to the eBay Marketplace platforms,Motors app, making it easier to find the majority of transactions in the U.S., the U.K., and Germany include free shipping for buyers, and we encourage sellers to offer free returns. We also work to create confidence in our ability to meet buyers’ delivery and tracking expectations. In the U.K. and Australia, we launched eBay Virtual Tracking Number to substantially increase package tracking and provide buyers and sellers with ease and confidence.most relevant inventory.

eBay’s purpose is to empower people and create economic opportunity for all through our technology for our global community of users. Every day, people build businesses on our platforms. With a low cost of entry for sellers, we offer a highly accessible way for all types of users to interact in a global marketplace that’s inclusive and connects people of all backgrounds. Accordingly, we prioritize our corporate responsibility efforts to impact the areas of economic empowerment and sustainable commerce. Key economic programs include eBay for Charity, the eBay Foundation and our small business enablement efforts, such as our Up & Running Grants program.

eBay for Charity empowers buyers and sellers to support charities around the world. In 2020,2021, eBay for Charity matched donations made to Feeding America, Direct Relief and Opportunity Fund,partnered with OXFAM, Make a Wish Foundation, Stop AAPI Hate and offered U.S. shoppers the opportunity to buy Gifts That Give Back to support COVID-19 relief efforts.The Andy Warhol Foundation. In 2020, nearly $1232021, more than $145 million was raised by buyers and sellers to support charities via eBay for Charity.

The eBay Foundation helps to build economically vibrant and thriving communities. In 2020,During 2021, the eBay Foundation granted over $16$14 million to support small businesses, untapped communities,historically excluded entrepreneurs and COVID-19 relief efforts, and offered an additional $2,500our employee gift-matching program. The eBay Foundation also increased our employee gift-matching annual cap to $10,000 per employee, in matching gifts for a total of up to $5,000 per employee.year. To date, the eBay Foundation has awarded more than $65$76 million to more than 1,800 nonprofits.

We are champions of inclusive commerceIn 2021, eBay committed to invest $25 million in the Clear Vision Impact Fund to bolster small- and in 2020, born out of the pandemic and an extension of our Retail Revival program, we launched the Up & Running initiative to help more smallmedium-sized minority-owned businesses start and grow online. Through the program, new eBay sellers received fee discounts and resources to run their business on eBay. The Up & Running program saw global adaptations in over 25 markets around the world, and expanded efforts with the Up & Running Grants program, which will reward a number of eBay U.S. small business sellers a grant package worth $10,000.that support historically under-served communities.

eBay continued its work to reach its goal of 100% renewable energy by 2025.2025 and signed its second virtual power purchase agreement in 2021. In our continued efforts to address climate change, we announced an updated carbon reduction goal that has been approved by the Science Based Target initiative: eBay commits to reduce its own (scope 1 and scope 2) emissions 90% by 2030 from a 2019 base year and to reduce value chain (scope 3) emissions from downstream transportation and distribution by 20% in the same timeframe. We joinedwill also be carbon neutral for our scope 1 and 2 emissions by the end of 2021 and each year moving forward. eBay was ranked in the U.S. EPA’sEnvironmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Program.Partnership National Top 100 and Top 30 Tech & Telecom for the second year. Additionally, we strive to integrate best practices in our offices and data center operations and to continually reduce our environmental footprint. This year, eBay was also recognized for its commitment to sustainability and responsible business onby its inclusion in the DJSIDow Jones Sustainability Indices World and North American Indices and rankedfor the third straight year. eBay also scored an A- on the CDP A list.Climate Change questionnaire.

We measure our footprint in our addressable market according to GMV. GMV consists of the total value of all successfully closedpaid transactions between users on our platforms during the applicable period regardlessinclusive of whether the buyershipping fees and seller actually completed the transaction.taxes. In 2020,2021, we generated $100$87 billion in GMV, of which approximately 6254 percent was generated outside the U.S. We believe that GMV provides a useful measure of the overall volume of closedpaid transactions that flow through our platforms in a given period, notwithstanding the inclusion in GMV of closed transactions that are not ultimately consummated.period.

At the end of 2020,2021, eBay had 185147 million active buyers and over 1917 million sellers. In 2020,2021, we had approximately 1.61.5 billion live listings globally. The term “active buyer” means, as of any date, all buyer accounts that successfully closedpaid for a transaction on Marketplaceour platforms within the previous 12-month period. Buyers may register more than once and, as a result, may have more than one account. “Sellers” include consumer-to-consumer (“C2C”) and business-to-consumer (“B2C”) businesses and individual sellers that have received payment for a transaction on our platforms within the platform.previous 12-month period.

We generate revenue primarily from the transactions we successfully enable, including monetization of managed payments and first-party advertising and through marketing services, and our growth initiatives of payments and advertising.services. The majority of our revenue comes from a take rate on the GMV of transactions closedpaid on our platforms. We define “take rate” as net transaction revenues divided by GMV.

Our platforms are designed to enable our buyers and sellers to leverage our economies of scale and capital investments, such as in sales and marketing, mobile, customer acquisition, technology innovation and customer service.

We regularly review and manage our investments to ensure that they support eBay’s strategic direction and complement our disciplined approach to value creation, profitability and capital allocation. eBay completed the sale of its Classifieds business to Adevinta for $2.5 billion in cash, subject to certain adjustments, and 540 million Adevinta shares in the second quarter of 2021, then completed the sale of approximately 135 million shares of our Adevinta stake to Permira for approximately $2.3 billion in cash in the fourth quarter of 2021. Additionally, we completed the sale of 80.01% of our ownership stake in eBay Korea LLC to E-mart for approximately $3.0 billion of gross cash proceeds, subject to certain adjustments in the fourth quarter of 2021.

In the first quarter of 2020, eBaywe completed the sale of StubHub to viagogo for $4.05 billion in cash, subject to certain adjustments. In the third quarter of 2020, we entered into a definitive agreement to transfer eBay Classifieds Group to Adevinta; see “Agreement to Transfer eBay Classifieds Group” above for more details.

We encounter vigorous competition in our business from numerous sources. Our users can list, sell, buy, and pay for similar items through a variety of competing online, mobile and offline channels. These include, but are not limited to, retailers, distributors, liquidators, import and export companies, auctioneers, catalog and mail-order companies, classifieds, directories, search engines, commerce participants (consumer-to-consumer, business-to-consumer and business-to-business), shopping channels and networks. As our product offerings continue to broaden into new categories of items and new commerce formats, we expect to face additional competition from other online, mobile and offline channels for those new offerings. We compete on the basis of price, product selection and services, and global scale.

For more information regarding competitive factors impacting our business, see the information in “Item 1A: Risk Factors” under the captions “Substantial and increasingly intense competition worldwide in ecommerce may harm our business” and “We are subject to regulatory activity and antitrust litigation under competition laws that could adversely impact our business.”

Government regulation impacts key aspects of our business. In particular, we are subject to laws and regulations that affect the ecommerce industry in many countries where we operate.

With ninetwo additional states adopting Internet sales tax laws in 2020,2021, some buyers across the U.S. encounterencountered sales tax for the first time on eBay. To date, more than 4045 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have implementedenacted Internet sales tax and digital service tax legislation. Additionally, a digital service tax (DST) was implemented in Italy, India and TurkeySpain in 2020,2021, and we are complying with the legislation. InOur business will also be required to increase payments reporting requirements for U.S. sellers as a result of federal legislation. Starting on January 1, 2022, all businesses that process payments are required to issue a Form 1099-K for all sellers who receive $600 or more in sales, a decrease from the U.K.previous reporting threshold of $20,000 and 200 transactions. Form 1099-Ks for the government also approved the law to introduce a 2% DST.new thresholds will be issued in January 2023. Tax collection responsibility and the additional costs associated with complex sales and use tax collection, remittance and audit requirements, or reporting, could create additional burdens for buyers and sellers on our websites and mobile platforms.

Legislation requiring increased seller information collection, verification and disclosure for online marketplaces was considered in a number of states and passed into law in Arkansas in 2021. Federal legislation is also being considered by Congress. Increased seller mandates could create additional burdens for sellers on our websites and mobile platforms.

For more information regarding regulatory risks, see the information in “Item 1A: Risk Factors” under the caption “Our business is subject to extensive government regulation and oversight”oversight, which could adversely impact our business” and “Our business and its users areour sellers and buyers may be subject to Internet sales and other tax and sales reporting and record-keeping obligations.regimes in various jurisdictions, which may harm our business.”

We expect transaction activity patterns on our platforms to mirror general consumer buying patterns. Please see the additional information in “Item 7: Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” under the caption “Seasonality.”

The eBay Marketplace uses a combination of proprietary technologies and services as well as technologies and services provided by others. We have developed intuitive user interfaces, buyer, seller and developer tools and transaction processing, database and network applications that help enable our users to reliably and securely complete transactions on our sites. Our technology infrastructure simplifies the storage and processing of large amounts of data, eases the deployment and operation of large-scale global products and services and automates much of the administration of large-scale clusters of computers. Our infrastructure has been designed around industry-standard architectures to reduce downtime in the event of outages or catastrophic occurrences.

In support of our commitment to innovation and a better customer experience, we have been on a multi-year evolution to modernize our marketplace. Through technologies like artificial intelligence, we are anticipating the needs of buyers, sellers and developers, empowering entrepreneurs looking to grow their business, and making the platform more accessible to everyone. We aim to create highly personalized and inspiring shopping experiences powered by advanced technologies.

For information regarding technology-related risks, see the information in “Item 1A: Risk Factors” under the captions “Our business is subject to online security risks, including security breaches and cyberattacks,” “Systems failures or cyberattacks and resulting interruptions in the availability of or degradation in the performance of our websites, applications, products or services could harm our business” and “Regulation in the areas of privacy and protection of user data could harm our business.”

We regard the protection of our intellectual property, including our trademarks (particularly those covering the eBay name), patents, copyrights, domain names, trade dress and trade secrets as critical to our success. We aggressively protect our intellectual property rights by relying on federal, state and common law rights in the U.S. and internationally, as well as a variety of administrative procedures. We also rely on contractual restrictions to protect our proprietary rights in products and services. We routinely enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and contractors and nondisclosure agreements with parties with whom we conduct business to limit access to and disclosure of our proprietary information.

We pursue the registration of our domain names, trademarks and service marks in the U.S. and internationally. Additionally, we have filed U.S. and international patent applications covering certain aspects of our proprietary technology. Effective trademark, copyright, patent, domain name, trade dress and trade secret protection is typically expensive to maintain and may require litigation. We must protect our intellectual property rights and other proprietary rights in an increasing number of jurisdictions, a process that is expensive and time consuming and may not be successful.

From time to time, third parties have claimed -— and others will likely claim in the future -— that we have infringed their intellectual property rights. We are typically involved in a number of such legal proceedings at any time. Please see the information in “Item 3: Legal Proceedings” and in “Item 1A: Risk Factors” under the captions “The listing or sale by our users of certain items, including items that allegedly infringe the intellectual property rights of rights owners, includingsuch as pirated or counterfeit items, illegal items or items used in an illegal manner may harm our business,” and “We may be unable to adequately protect or enforce our intellectual property rights and face ongoing risk from patent litigation and allegations by third parties that we are infringing their intellectual property rights.”

As of December 31, 2020,2021, we employed approximately 12,70010,800 people globally. Approximately 6,0006,300 of our employees were located in the U.S. eBay has robust people-focused programs to support and retain our employees globally and to attract our future employees. Our recruitment, development, compensation and benefits and wellness programs are designed to reflect our cultural values and our goal to make eBay competitive in the market for talent and a place that is welcoming and inclusive. eBay’s management is focused on delivering programs that develop and support our people and connect them with our customers, our community, and each other.

AdaptingWe continue to working duringmonitor and adapt to workplace changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic has been a major focus ofpandemic. eBay continues to support our people programs. When companies were required to close their workplaces, eBay quickly moved to facilitate our peoplewho are predominantly working from home. eBay providedremotely by providing equipment, systems and resources for homeremote connection, including for our customer experience team members who all shiftedare continuing to workingwork from home. In 2020, eBay made two payments to all employees to allow them to cover individual needs and well-being.home in most cases. We also increased work flexibility to balance personal and professional responsibilities and providedcontinued to provide back-up in-home child and adult care in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany and Ireland. eBay has continually engaged with our people to support physical and mental health for them and their families through online wellness resources, webinars, telehealth access and expansion of company-paid mental health support as well as additional training for managers. In recognition ofmanagers and peers to support mental health. As we continued to hire employees throughout the extraordinary circumstances affectingpandemic, we have reimagined the team, weemployee onboarding experience. We have also provided an additional paid day off globally for allhad the opportunity to welcome employees back to the office on a voluntary basis, where it is safe to do so, and contractors.introduced new hybrid habits to enable collaboration in a hybrid environment.

eBay’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program is focusedcontinues to focus on three strategic areas –— workforce, workplace and marketplace. Equity isremains at the forefront of all we do to hire, grow, and keep top talent, enhance corporate performance, and foster a welcoming and inclusive place to work, learn and grow. Starting with a comprehensive diversity recruiting strategy, we reviewWe continue efforts to enhance our processes, while leveraging deepened and enhance processes, including deepeningactionable data insights, updatingcoupled with updated learning and development practices as well as the planned design and implementation of a new governance model to ensure that a diverse set of candidates are connected to eBay and can see themselves as being successful here.we drive shared accountability throughout the organization. Our Communities of Inclusion welcome and connect eBay employees all over the world to help us build and nurture employees, allies and external communities. They host events and forums to connect employees to groups organized around age, disability status, ethnicity, gender, religion, military status, parental status and sexual orientation and gender identity and expression. We are currently preparing our fifthsixth Global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion report for publication later this year that shares stories and workforce data.in the second quarter of 2022.

We reaffirmed and expandedmaintained our commitment to ethics and acting with integrity in 2020.2021. We took big and small actions to ensure that we are open, honest, ethical and authentic with a company-wide webinar meeting and a series of leadershipongoing trainings, with an outside ethics expert, quarterly “tone from the top” engagements between leaders with their employees and daily ethics contests during Ethics and Compliance Week.

In addition to competitive pay and benefits, eBay offers additional parental time off beyond what’swhat is required by law in the U.S. and in most countries where we operate. This benefit is offered for parents welcoming a new child into the family whether by giving birth, adopting or welcoming a child through surrogacy. This is an important demonstration of our commitment to working parents and their families.

In addition to multiple channels for sharing feedback, we also regularly survey our employees on trust and engagement, their experience with diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as ethics and integrity.integrity, and this year regarding their thoughts on returning to the office. Our employees highly value eBay’s approach to Impact and Responsibility and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion discussed earlier in the report. Employees are proud of eBay’s efforts to reduce our carbon footprint and the sustainable commerce that is enabled by our platform. These commitments are core to our business and they positively impact recruitment, engagement and retention.

We webcast our earnings calls and certain events we participate in or host with members of the investment community on our investor relations website. Additionally, we provide notifications of news or announcements regarding our financial performance, including SEC filings, investor events, press and earnings releases, and blogs on our investor relations website. Company sustainability information for investors is available on our investor relations website under the heading “ESG Investors.” Corporate governance information, including our governance guidelines for our Board of Directors (“Board”), Board committee charters and code of conduct, is also available on our investor relations website under the heading “Corporate Governance.”

The contents of our websites and webcasts and information that can be accessed through our websites and webcasts are not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file with (or furnish to) the SEC, and any references to our websites and webcasts are intended to be inactive textual references only.

The summary of risks below provides an overview of the principal risks we are exposed to in the normal course of our business activities:

You should carefully review the following discussion of the risks that may affect our business, results of operations and financial condition, as well as our consolidated financial statements and notes thereto and the other information appearing in this report, for important information regarding risks that affect us. Current global economic events and conditions may amplify many of these risks. These risks are not the only risks that may affect us. Additional risks that we are not aware of or do not believe are material at the time of this filing may also become important factors that adversely affect our business.

Our operating and financial results have varied on a quarterly basis during our operating history and may continue to fluctuate significantly as a result of a variety of factors, including as a result of the following risks and other risks set forth in this “Risk Factors” section.

In view of the rapidly evolving nature of our business, period-to-period comparisons of our operating results may not be meaningful, and you should not rely upon them as an indication of future performance. It is difficult for us to forecast the level or source of our revenues or earnings (loss) accurately, particularly given that substantially all of our net revenues each quarter come from transactions involving sales during that quarter. Due to the inherent difficulty in forecasting revenues, it is also difficult to forecast expenses as a percentage of net revenues. Quarterly and annual expenses as a percentage of net revenues reflected in our consolidated financial statements may be significantly different from historical or projected percentages. Because our business model is dependent upon consumer spending, our results of operations are sensitive to changes in or uncertainty about macro-economic conditions. Our buyers may in the future have less capacity for discretionary purchases and may reduce their purchases from our sellers as a result of various factors, including job losses, inflation, higher taxes, reduced access to credit, changes in federal economic policy, the COVID-19 pandemic and recent international trade disputes.

The businesses and markets in which we operate are intensely competitive. We currently and potentially compete with a wide variety of online and offline companies providing goods and services to consumers and merchants, a number of which have significant resources, large user communities and well-established brands. The Internet and mobile networks provide new, rapidly evolving and intensely competitive channels for the sale of all types of goods and services. We compete in two-sided markets, and must attract both buyers and sellers to use our platforms. Consumers who purchase or sell goods and services through us have more and more alternatives, and merchants have more channels to reach consumers. We expect competition to continue to intensify. The barriers to entry into these channels can be low, and businesses can easily can launch online sites or mobile platforms and applications at nominal cost by using commercially available software or partnering with any of a number of successful ecommerce, search, advertising or social companies. As we respond to changes in the competitive environment, we may, from time to time, make pricing, service, policy or marketing decisions or acquisitions that may be controversial with and lead to dissatisfaction among sellers, which could reduce activity on our platform and harm our reputation and profitability.

We face increased competitive pressure online and offline. In particular, the competitive norm for, and the expected level of service from, ecommerce and mobile commerce has significantly increased due to, among other factors, improved user experience, greater ease of buying goods, lower (or no) shipping costs, faster shipping times and more favorable return policies. In addition, certain platform businesses, such as Alibaba, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google, many of whom are larger than us or have greater capitalization, have a dominant and secure position in other industries or certain significant markets, and offer other goods and services to consumers and merchants that we do not offer. If we are unable to change our products, offerings and services in ways that reflect the changing demands of ecommerce and mobile commerce marketplaces, or if products offered through eBay are not available for purchase where the consumers shop, particularly the higher growth of sales of fixed-price items and higher expected service levels (some of which depend on services provided by sellers on our platforms), or compete effectively with and adapt to changes in larger platform businesses, our business and reputation will suffer.

Competitors with other revenue sources may also be able to devote more resources to marketing and promotional campaigns and buyer acquisition, adopt more aggressive pricing policies and devote more resources to website, mobile platforms and applications and systems development than we can. Other competitors may offer or continue to offer faster and/or free shipping, delivery on Sunday, same-day delivery, favorable return policies or other transaction-related services which improve the user experience on their sites and which could be impractical or inefficient for our sellers to match. Competitors may be more narrowly focused on a particular type of goods and create a compelling community, be able to innovate faster and more efficiently, and new technologies may increase the competitive pressures by enabling competitors to offer more efficient or lower-cost services.

Some of our competitors control other products and services that are important to our success, including credit card interchange, Internet search, and mobile operating systems. Such competitors could manipulate pricing, availability, terms or operation of service related to their products and services in a manner that impacts our competitive offerings. For example, Google, which operates a shopping platform service, has from time to time made changes to its search algorithms that reduced the amount of search traffic directed to us from searches on Google. If we are unable to use or adapt to operational changes in such services, we may face higher costs for such services, face integration or technological barriers or lose customers, which could cause our business to suffer.

Consumers who might use our sites to buy goods have a wide variety of alternatives, including traditional department, warehouse, boutique, discount and general merchandise stores (as well as the online and mobile operations of these traditional retailers), online retailers and their related mobile offerings, online and offline aggregation and classified services, social media platforms and other shopping channels, such as offline and online home shopping networks. In the United States, these include, but are not limited to, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Walmart, Target, Macy’s, Etsy, StockX, Shopify, Wayfair, TheRealReal, Overstock.com and Rakuten, among others. In addition, consumers have a large number of online and offline channels focused on one or more of the categories of products offered on our site.

Consumers also can turn to many companies that offer a variety of services that provide other channels for buyers to find and buy items from sellers of all sizes, including social media, online aggregation and classifieds platforms, such as websites operated by Adevinta or Naspers Limited and others such as craigslist, Oodle.com and Facebook. Consumers also can turn to shopping-comparison sites, such as Google Shopping.Shopping, or social networks that enable purchases such as Pinterest and Facebook. In certain markets, our fixed-price listing and traditional auction-style listing formats increasingly are being challenged by other formats, such as classifieds.

Consumers and merchants who might use our sites to sell goods also have many alternatives, including general ecommerce sites, such as Amazon, Alibaba, Zalando and Coupang,Zalando, and more specialized sites, such as Etsy. Our international sites also compete for sellers with general and specialized ecommerce sites. Sellers may also choose to sell their goods through other channels, such as multi-channel services like Shopify or classifieds platforms. Consumers and merchants also can create and sell through their own sites, and may choose to purchase online advertising instead of using our services. We generate a substantial amount of our revenue from our Promoted Listings (a first-party advertising offering) and, to a lesser extent, third-party advertising. To sustain or increase our advertising revenue, we must continue to provide customers with compelling advertising products to maintain or

In addition, certain manufacturers may limit or cease distribution of their products through online channels, such as our sites. Manufacturers may attempt to use contractual obligations or existing or future government regulation to prohibit or limit ecommerce in certain categories of goods or services. Manufacturers may also attempt to enforce minimum resale price maintenance or minimum advertised price arrangements to prevent distributors from selling on our platforms or on the Internet generally, or drive distributors to sell at prices that would make us less attractive relative to other alternatives. The adoption by those or other policies could adversely affect our results of operations and result in loss of market share and diminished value of our brands.

The principal competitive factors for us include the following:

We may be unable to compete successfully against current and future competitors. Some current and potential competitors have longer operating histories, larger customer bases and greater brand recognition in other business and Internet sectors than we do.

The global spread of COVID-19 variants and related measures to contain its spread (such as government mandated business closures and shelter in-place guidelines) have created significant volatility, uncertainty and economic disruption. The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic impacts our business, results of operations, financial condition and liquidity in the future will depend on numerous evolving factors that we cannot predict, including the duration and scope of the pandemic; any resurgence of the pandemic; the availability and distribution of effective treatments and vaccines; governmental, business and individuals’ actions that have been and continue to be taken in response to the pandemic; the impact of the pandemic on national and global economic activity, unemployment levels and financial markets, including the possibility of a national or global recession; the potential for shipping difficulties, including slowed deliveries from sellers to their customers; and the ability of consumers to pay for products. The COVID-19 pandemic has generally resulted in a decrease in consumer spending, which could have an adverse impact on our sellers through reduced consumer demand for their products and availability of inventory, which could in turn negatively impact the demand for use of our platforms. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused us to require employees to work remotely for an extended period of time, which could negatively impact our business and harm productivity and collaboration. If there is a prolonged impact of COVID-19, it could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and liquidity, perhaps materially. The future impact of COVID-19 and these containment measures cannot be predicted with certainty and may increase our borrowing costs and other costs of capital and otherwise adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and liquidity, and we cannot assure that we will have access to external financing at times and on terms we consider acceptable, or at all, or that we will not experience other liquidity issues going forward.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the related measures to contain its spread havedid not adversely affectedaffect our consolidated results of operations to date. Additionally, to date,operations. Initially, our Marketplace platforms experienced improved traffic and buyer acquisition due to the ongoing impact of mobility restrictions taken globally to contain the spread of COVID-19 and changes in consumer behaviors that have resulted in more online shopping. TheAs restrictions have loosened and

Because we generate the majorityapproximately half of our revenues outside the United States but report our financial results in U.S. dollars, our financial results are impacted by fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, or foreign exchange rates. The results of operations of many of our internationally focused platforms are exposed to foreign exchange rate fluctuations as the financial results of the applicable subsidiaries are translated from the local currency into U.S. dollars for financial reporting purposes.

While from time to time we enter into transactions to hedge portions of our foreign currency translation exposure, it is impossible to predict or eliminate the effects of this exposure. Fluctuations in foreign exchange rates could significantly impact our financial results, which may have a significant impact on the trading price of our common stock and debt securities.

Our international businesses, especially in the United Kingdom, Germany Australia and South Korea,Australia, and cross-border business from greater China, have generated a majority of our net revenues in recent years. In addition to uncertainty about our ability to generate revenues from our foreign operations and expand into international markets, there are risks inherent in doing business internationally, including:

Violations of the complex foreign and U.S. laws and regulations that apply to our international operations may result in fines, criminal actions, or sanctions against us, our officers, or our employees; prohibitions on the conduct of our business; and damage to our reputation. Although we have implemented policies and procedures designed to

Cross-border trade is an important source of both revenue and profits for us. Cross-border trade also represents our primary (or in some cases, only) presence in certain important markets, such as Brazil/Latin America, China, and various other countries. The interpretation and/or application of laws, such as those related to intellectual property rights of authentic products, selective distribution networks, and sellers in other countries listing items on the Internet, could impose restrictions on, or increase the costs of, purchasing, selling, shipping, or returning goods across national borders. The shipping of goods across national borders is often more expensive and complicated than domestic shipping. Any factors that increase the costs of cross-border trade or restrict, delay, or make cross-border trade more difficult or impractical would lower our revenues and profits and could harm our business.

Our users may spend less time on our websites and our applications for mobile devices as a result of a variety of diversions, including: geopolitical events, such as war, the threat of war, or terrorist activity; natural disasters or the effects of climate change (such as drought, flooding, wildfires, increased storm severity and sea level rise); power shortages or outages, major public health issues, including pandemics (such as COVID-19)COVID-19 variants); social networking or other entertainment websites or mobile applications; significant local, national or global events capturing the attention of a large part of the population; and seasonal fluctuations due to a variety of factors. If any of these, or any other factors, divert our users from using our websites or mobile applications, our business could be materially adversely affected.

Rapid, significant technological changes continue to confront the industries in which we operate and we cannot predict the effect of technological changes on our business. We also continuously strive to create new initiatives and innovations that offerpromote growth, opportunities, such as our new payments and advertising offerings.offerings and other features that enhance the customer experience. In addition to our own initiatives and innovations, we rely in part on third parties, including some of our competitors, for the development of and access to new technologies. We expect that new services and technologies applicable to the industries in which we operate will continue to emerge. These new services and technologies may be superior to, or render obsolete, the technologies we currently use in our products and services. Incorporating new technologies into our products and services may require substantial expenditures and take considerable time, and ultimately may not be successful. In addition, our ability to adopt new services and develop new technologies may be inhibited by industry-wide standards, new laws and regulations, resistance to change from our users, clients or merchants, or third parties’ intellectual property rights. Our success will depend on our ability to develop new technologies and adapt to technological changes and evolving industry standards.

Our eBay Money Back Guarantee program represents the means by which we compensate users who believe that they have been defrauded, have not received the item that they purchased or have received an item different from what was described. We expect to continue to receive communications from users requesting reimbursement or threatening or commencing legal action against us if no reimbursement is made. Our liability for these sorts of claims is slowly beginning to be clarified in some jurisdictions and may be higher in some non-U.S. jurisdictions than it is in the United States.jurisdictions. Litigation involving liability for any such third-party actions could be costly and time consuming for us, divert management attention, result in increased costs of doing business, lead to adverse judgments or settlements or otherwise harm our business. In addition, affected users will likely complain to regulatory agencies that could take action against us, including imposing fines or seeking injunctions.

We have invested and plan to continue to invest internal resources into our payments tools in order to maintain existing availability, expand into additional markets and offer new payment methods and toolsother types of financial services to our buyers and sellers. If we fail to invest adequate resources into payments on our platform, or if our investment efforts are unsuccessful, unreliable or result in system failure, our payments and financial services may not function properly or keep pace with competitive offerings, which could negatively impact their usage and our Marketplace. Future errors, failures or outages could cause our buyers and sellers to lose confidence in our payments system and could cause them to cease using our marketplace.

We rely on third-party service providers to perform services related to compliance among other activities, credit card processing, payment disbursements, currency exchange, identity verification, sanctions screening, and fraud analysis and detection. As a result, we are subject to a number of risks related to our dependence on third-party service providers. If any or some of these service providers fail to perform adequately or if any such service provider were to terminate or modify its relationship with us unexpectedly, our sellers’ ability to use our platform to receive orders or payments could be adversely affected, which would increase costs, drive sellers away from our marketplaces, result in potential legal liability, and harm our business. In addition, we and our third-party service providers may experience service outages from time to time that could adversely impact payments made on our platform. Additionally, any unexpected termination or modification of those third-party services could lead to a lapse in the effectiveness of certain fraud prevention and detection tools.

Our third-party service providers may increase the fees they charge us in the future, which would increase our operating expenses. This could, in turn, require us to increase the fees we charge to sellers and cause some sellers to reduce listings on our marketplaces or to leave our platform altogether by closing their accounts.

Further, we are indirectly subject to payment card association operating rules and certification requirements pursuant to agreements with our third-party payment processors. These rules and requirements, including the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard and rules governing electronic funds transfers, are subject to change or reinterpretation, making it difficult for us to comply. Any failure to comply with these rules and certification requirements could impact our ability to meet our contractual obligations to our third-party payment processors and could result in potential fines. In addition, changes in these rules and requirements, including any change in our designation by major payment card providers, could require a change in our business operations and could result in limitations on or loss of our ability to accept payment cards or other forms of payment, any of which could negatively impact our business. Such changes could also increase our costs of compliance, which could lead to increased fees for us or our sellers and adversely affect payments on our platform or usage of our payments services and Marketplace.

Our payments system is susceptible to illegal uses, including money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud and payments to sanctioned parties. If our compliance program and internal controls to limit such illegal activity are ineffective, government authorities could bring legal action against us or otherwise suspend our ability to offer payment services in one or more markets.

We believe the protection of our intellectual property, including our trademarks, patents, copyrights, domain names, trade dress, and trade secrets, is critical to our success. We seek to protect our intellectual property rights by relying on applicable laws and regulations in the United States and internationally, as well as a variety of administrative procedures. We also rely on contractual restrictions to protect our proprietary rights when offering or procuring products and services, including confidentiality and invention assignment agreements entered into with our employees and contractors and confidentiality agreements with parties with whom we conduct business.

However, effective intellectual property protection may not be available in every country in which our products and services are made available, and contractual arrangements and other steps we have taken to protect our intellectual property may not prevent third parties from infringing or misappropriating our intellectual property or deter independent development of equivalent or superior intellectual property rights by others. Trademark, copyright, patent, domain name, trade dress and trade secret protection is very expensive to maintain and may require litigation. We must protect our intellectual property rights and other proprietary rights in an increasing number of jurisdictions, a process that is expensive and time consuming and may not be successful in every jurisdiction. Also, we may not be able to discover or determine the extent of any unauthorized use of our proprietary rights. We have licensed in the past, and expect to license in the future, certain of our proprietary rights, such as trademarks or copyrighted material, to others. These licensees may take actions that diminish the value of our proprietary rights or harm our reputation. Any failure to adequately protect or enforce our intellectual property rights, or significant costs incurred in doing so, could materially harm our business.

Additionally, we have repeatedly been sued for allegedly infringing other parties’ patents. We are a defendant in a number ofvarious patent suits and have been notified of several other potential patent disputes.

As the number of patent owners and products in the software industry increases and the functionality of these products further overlap, and as we acquire technology through acquisitions or licenses, litigation may be necessary to determine the validity and scope of the intellectual property rights of others and we may become increasingly subject to patent suits and other infringement claims, including copyright, and trademark infringement claims. Such claims may be brought directly against us and/or against our customers whom we may indemnify either because we are contractually obligated to do so or we choose to do so as a business matter. Patent claims, whether meritorious or not, are time-consuming and costly to defend and resolve, and could require us to make expensive changes in our methods of doing business, enter into costly royalty or licensing agreements, make substantial payments to satisfy adverse judgments or settle claims or proceedings, or cease conducting certain operations, which would harm our business.

We face reputational and other risks with respect to fraudulent activities on our platforms and periodically receive complaints from buyers and sellers who may not have received the goods that they had contracted to purchase or payment for the goods that a buyer had contracted to purchase. In some European and Asian jurisdictions, buyers may also have the right to withdraw from a sale made by a professional seller within a specified time period. While we can, in some cases, suspend the accounts of users who fail to fulfill their payment or delivery obligations to other users, we do not have the ability to require users to make payment or deliver goods, or otherwise make users whole other than through our buyer protection program, which in the United States we refer to as the eBay Money Back Guarantee, or as we roll out our new payments capabilities, by compensating our sellers for fraudulent payments.programs. Although we have implemented measures to detect and reduce the occurrence of fraudulent activities, combat bad buyer experiences and increase buyer satisfaction, including evaluating sellers on the basis of their identity and transaction history and restricting or suspending their activity, there can be no assurance that these measures will be effective in combating fraudulent transactions or improving overall satisfaction among sellers, buyers, and other participants. Additional measures to address fraud could negatively affect the attractiveness of our services to buyers or sellers, resulting in

Our businesses involve the storage and transmission of users’ personal financial information. In addition, a significant number of our users authorize us to bill their payment card accounts directly for all transaction and other fees charged by us or, in certain cases, third-party service providers utilized in our payment services. An increasing number of websites, including those owned by several other large Internet and offline companies, have disclosed breaches of their security, some of which have involved sophisticated and highly targeted attacks on portions of their websites or infrastructure. Our information technology and infrastructure may be vulnerable to cyberattacks or security incidents and third parties may be able to access our users’ proprietary information and payment card data that are stored on or accessible through our systems. Any security breach at a company providing services to us or our users could have similar effects.

We may also need to expend significant additional resources to protect against security breaches or to redress problems caused by breaches. Additionally, our insurance policies carry low coverage limits, which may not be adequate to reimburse us for losses caused by security breaches and we may not be able to fully collect, if at all, under these insurance policies.

Our systems may experience service interruptions or degradation due to hardware and software defects or malfunctions, computer denial-of-service and other cyberattacks, human error, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, fires, natural disasters, power losses, disruptions in telecommunications services, fraud, military or political conflicts, terrorist attacks, computer viruses, or other events. Our systems are also subject to break-ins, sabotage and intentional acts of vandalism. Some of our systems are not fully redundant and our disaster recovery planning is not sufficient for all eventualities.

We have experienced and will likely continue to experience system failures, denial-of-service attacks, human error and other events or conditions from time to time that interrupt the availability or reduce the speed or functionality of our websites and mobile applications, including our payments services. These events have resulted and likely will result in loss of revenue. A prolonged interruption in the availability or reduction in the speed or other functionality of our websites and mobile applications or payments services could materially harm our business. Frequent or persistent interruptions in our services could cause current or potential users to believe that our systems are unreliable, leading them to switch to our competitors or to avoid our sites, and could permanently harm our reputation and brands. Moreover, to the extent that any system failure or similar event results in damages to our customers or their businesses, these customers could seek significant compensation from us for their losses and those claims, even if unsuccessful, would likely be time-consuming and costly for us to address. We also rely on facilities, components and services supplied by third parties and our business may be materially adversely affected to the extent these components or services do not meet our expectations or these third parties cease to provide the services or facilities. In particular, a decision by any of our third party hosting providers to close a facility that we use could cause system interruptions and delays, result in loss of critical data and cause lengthy interruptions in our services. We do not carry business interruption insurance sufficient to compensate us for losses that may result from interruptions in our service as a result of systems failures and similar events.

A number of third parties provide services to us or to our sellers. Such services include seller tools that automate and manage listings, merchant tools that manage listings and interface with inventory management software, storefronts that help our sellers list items and shipping providers that deliver goods sold on our platform, managed payments intermediation, among others. Financial or regulatory issues, labor issues (e.g., strikes, lockouts, worker shortages or work stoppages), or other problems that prevent these companies from providing services to us or our sellers could harm our business.

Price increases by, or service terminations, disruptions or interruptions at, companies that provide services to us and our sellers and clients could also reduce the number of listings on our platforms or make it more difficult for our sellers to complete transactions, thereby harming our business. While we continue to work with global carriers to offer our sellers a variety of shipping options and to enhance their shipping experience, postal rate increases may reduce the competitiveness of certain sellers’ offerings, and postal service changes could require certain sellers to utilize alternatives which could be more expensive or inconvenient, which could in turn decrease the number of transactions on our sites, thereby harming our business.

We have outsourced certain functions to third-party providers, including some customer support, managed payments and product development functions, which are critical to our operations. If our service providers do not perform satisfactorily, our operations could be disrupted, which could result in user dissatisfaction and could harm our business.

There can be no assurance that third parties who provide services directly to us or our sellers will continue to do so on acceptable terms, or at all. If any third parties were to stop providing services to us or our sellers on acceptable terms, including as a result of bankruptcy, we may be unable to procure alternatives from other third parties in a timely and efficient manner and on acceptable terms, or at all.

We are subject to laws and regulations affecting our domestic and international operations in a number of areas, including consumer protection, data privacy requirements, intellectual property ownership and infringement, prohibited items and stolen goods, tax, antitrust and anti-competition, export requirements, anti-corruption, labor, advertising, digital content, real estate, payments and financial services, billing, ecommerce,ecommerce/marketplace liability, promotions, quality of services, telecommunications, mobile communications and media, environmental, and health and safety regulations, as well as laws and regulations intended to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorist activities. In addition, we are, or may become, subject to further regulation in some of the above-mentioned areas or new areas as a result of the continued development and expansion of our payments capabilities. Further, certain government agencies seek to hold us liable for third party sales on our Marketplace platforms to the extent such sales implicate laws and regulations enforced by those agencies, including specifically the Environmental Protection Agency and the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Compliance with these laws, regulations, and similar requirements may be onerous and expensive, and variances and inconsistencies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction may further increase the cost of compliance and doing business. Any such costs, which may rise in the future as a result of changes in these laws and regulations or in their interpretation, could individually or in the aggregate make our products and services less attractive to our customers, delay the introduction of new products or services in one or more regions, or cause us to change or limit our business practices. We have implemented policies and procedures designed to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations, but there can be no assurance that our customers, employees, contractors, or agents will not violate such laws and regulations or our policies and procedures. 

We are subject to laws relating to the collection, use, retention, security, and transfer of personally identifiable information about our users around the world. Much of the personal information that we collect, especially financial information, is regulated by multiple laws. User data protection laws may be interpreted and applied inconsistently from country to country. In many cases, these laws apply not only to third-party transactions, but also to transfers of information between or among ourselves, our subsidiaries, and other parties with which we have commercial relations. These laws continue to develop in ways we cannot predict and that may harm our business.

Regulatory scrutiny of privacy, user data protection, use of data and data collection is increasing on a global basis. We are subject to a number of privacy and similar laws and regulations in the countries in which we operate and these laws and regulations will likely continue to evolve over time, both through regulatory and legislative action and judicial decisions. In addition, compliance with these laws may restrict our ability to provide services to our customers that they may find to be valuable. For example, the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) became effective in May 2018. The GDPR, which applies to all of our activities conducted from an establishment in the European Union or related to products and services offered in the European Union, imposes a range of new compliance obligations regarding the handling of personal data. The GDPR imposes significant new obligations and compliance with these obligations depends in part on how particular regulators interpret and apply them. If we fail to comply with the GDPR, or if regulators assert we have failed to comply with the GDPR, it may lead to regulatory enforcement actions, which can result in monetary penalties of up to 4% of worldwide revenue, private lawsuits, or reputational damage. In June 2021, the European Commission finalized recommendations in relation to cross border data transfers and published new versions of the Standard Contractual Clauses. The new requirements will require us to incur costs and expenses in order to comply and may impact the transfer of personal data throughout our organization and to third parties.

In the U.S., California has adopted the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”), which became effective January 1, 2020 and which provides a new private right of action for data breaches and requires companies that process information on California residents to make new disclosures to consumers about their data collection, use and sharing practices and allow consumers to opt out of certain data sharing with third parties. Further, the California Privacy Rights Act, which was passed in November 2020 and is fully effective in January 2023, significantly modifies the CCPA. These modifications will require us to incur additional costs and expenses in our effort to comply. In addition to the CCPA, several other U.S. states have adopted or are considering adopting laws and regulations imposing obligations regarding the handling of personal data. Compliance with the GDPR, the CCPA, and other current and future applicable international and U.S. privacy, cybersecurity and related laws can be costly and time-consuming. Complying with these varying national and international requirements could cause us to incur substantial costs or require us to change our business practices in a manner adverse to our business and violations of privacy-related laws can result in significant penalties.

A determination that there have been violations of laws relating to our practices under communications-based laws could also expose us to significant damage awards, fines and other penalties that could, individually or in the aggregate, materially harm our business. In particular, because of the enormous number of texts, emails and other communications we send to our users, communications laws that provide a specified monetary damage award or fine for each violation (such as those described below) could result in particularly large awards or fines.

For example, the Federal Communications Commission amended certain of its regulations under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or TCPA, in 2012 and 2013 in a manner that could increase our exposure to liability for certain types of telephonic communication with customers, including but not limited to text messages to mobile phones. Under the TCPA, plaintiffs may seek actual monetary loss or statutory damages of $500 per violation, whichever is greater, and courts may treble the damage award for willful or knowing violations. We are regularly subject to class-action lawsuits, as well as individual lawsuits, containing allegations that our businesses violated the TCPA. These lawsuits, and other private lawsuits not currently alleged as class actions, seek damages (including statutory damages) and injunctive relief, among other remedies. Given the enormous number of communications we send to our users, a determination that there have been violations of the TCPA or other communications-based statutes could expose us to significant damage awards that could, individually or in the aggregate, materially harm our business.

We post on our websites our privacy policies and practices concerning the collection, use and disclosure of user data. Any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with our posted privacy policies or with any regulatory requirements or orders or other federal, state or international privacy or consumer protection-related laws and

It is not always clear how laws and regulations governing matters relevant to our business, such as property ownership, copyrights, trademarks, and other intellectual property issues, parallel imports and distribution controls, taxation, libel and defamation, and obscenity apply to our businesses. Many of these laws were adopted prior to the advent of the Internet, mobile, and related technologies and, as a result, do not contemplate or address the unique issues of the Internet and related technologies. Many of these laws, including some of those that do reference the Internet are subject to interpretation by the courts on an ongoing basis and the resulting uncertainty in the scope and application of these laws and regulations increases the risk that we will be subject to private claims and governmental actions alleging violations of those laws and regulations.

As our activities, the products and services we offer, our investment in other companies, and our geographical scope continue to expand, regulatory agencies or courts may claim or hold that we or our users are subject to additional requirements (including licensure) or prohibited from conducting our business in their jurisdiction, either generally or with respect to certain actions. For example, we have or will havethe ability to acquire investments in other companies (such as Adevinta, Adyen, KakaoBank and Adyen)Gmarket, formerly known as Apollo Korea) that raise the potential for us to be deemed an investment company as defined by the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the “Investment Company Act”). While we intend to conduct our operations such that we will not be deemed an investment company, such a determination would require us to initiate burdensome compliance requirements and comply with restrictions imposed by the Investment Company Act that would limit our activities, including limitations on our capital structure and our ability to transact with affiliates, which would have an adverse effect on our financial condition. Further, financial and political events have increased the level of regulatory scrutiny on large companies, and regulatory agencies may view matters or interpret laws and regulations differently than they have in the past and in a manner adverse to our businesses.

Numerous U.S. states and foreign jurisdictions, including the State of California, have regulations regarding “auctions” and the handling of property by “secondhand dealers” or “pawnbrokers.” Several states and some foreign jurisdictions have attempted to impose such regulations upon us or our users, and others may attempt to do so in the future. Attempted enforcement of these laws against some of our users appears to be increasing and we could be required to change the way we or our users do business in ways that increase costs or reduce revenues, such as forcing us to prohibit listings of certain items or restrict certain listing formats in some locations. We could also be subject to fines or other penalties, and any of these outcomes could harm our business.

As we expand and localize our international activities, we are increasingly becoming obligated to comply with the laws of the countries or markets in which we operate. In addition, because our services are accessible worldwide and we facilitate sales of goods and provide services to users worldwide, one or more jurisdictions may claim that we or our users are required to comply with their laws based on the location of our servers or one or more of our users, or the location of the product or service being sold or provided in an ecommerce transaction. Laws regulating Internet, mobile and ecommerce technologies outside of the United States are generally less favorable to us than those in the United States. Compliance may be more costly or may require us to change our business practices or restrict our service offerings, and the imposition of any regulations on us or our users may harm our business. In addition, we may be subject to multiple overlapping legal or regulatory regimes that impose conflicting requirements on us (e.g., in cross-border trade). Our alleged failure to comply with foreign laws could subject us to penalties ranging from criminal prosecution to significant fines to bans on our services, in addition to the significant costs we may incur in defending against such actions.

We are regularly subject to claims, lawsuits (including class actions and individual lawsuits), government investigations, and other proceedings involving competition and antitrust, intellectual property, privacy, consumer

The outcome and impact of such claims, lawsuits, government investigations, and other proceedings cannot be predicted with certainty. Regardless of the outcome, such investigations and proceedings can have an adverse impact on us because of legal costs, diversion of management resources, and other factors. Determining reserves for our pending litigation and other proceedings is a complex, fact-intensive process that is subject to judgment calls. It is possible that a resolution of one or more such proceedings could require us to make substantial payments to satisfy judgments, fines or penalties or to settle claims or proceedings, any of which could harm our business. These proceedings could also result in reputational harm, criminal sanctions, consent decrees, or orders preventing us from offering certain products, or services, or requiring a change in our business practices in costly ways, or requiring development of non-infringing or otherwise altered products or technologies. Any of these consequences could harm our business.

We are subject to scrutiny by various government agencies under U.S. and foreign laws and regulations, including antitrust and competition laws. Some jurisdictions also provide private rights of action for competitors or consumers to assert claims of anti-competitive conduct. Other companies and government agencies have in the past and may in the future allege that our actions violate the antitrust or competition laws of the United States, individual states, the European Union or other countries, or otherwise constitute unfair competition. An increasing number of governments are regulating competition law activities, including increased scrutiny in large markets such as China. Our business partnerships or agreements or arrangements with customers or other companies could give rise to regulatory action or antitrust litigation. Some regulators, particularly those outside of the United States, may perceive our business to be used so broadly that otherwise uncontroversial business practices could be deemed anticompetitive. Certain competition authorities have conducted market studies of our industries. Such claims and investigations, even if without foundation, may be very expensive to defend, involve negative publicity and substantial diversion of management time and effort and could result in significant judgments against us or require us to change our business practices.

The listing or sale by our users of unlawful, counterfeit or stolen goods or unlawful services, or sale of goods or services in an unlawful manner, has resulted and may continue to result in allegations of civil or criminal liability for unlawful activities against us (including the employees and directors of our various entities) involving activities carried out by users through our services. In a number of circumstances, third parties, including government regulators and law enforcement officials, have alleged that our services aid and abet violations of certain laws, including laws regarding the sale of counterfeit items, laws restricting or prohibiting the transferability (and by extension, the resale) of digital goods (e.g., books, music and software), the fencing of stolen goods, selective distribution channel laws, customs laws, distance selling laws, and the sale of items outside of the United States that are regulated by U.S. export controls.

In addition, allegations of infringement of intellectual property rights, including but not limited to counterfeit items, have resulted in threatened and actual litigation from time to time by rights owners. These and similar suits may also force us to modify our business practices in a manner that increases costs, lowers revenue, makes our websites and mobile platforms less convenient to customers, and requires us to spend substantial resources to take additional protective measures or discontinue certain service offerings in order to combat these practices. In addition, we have received significant media attention relating to the listing or sale of illegal or counterfeit goods, which could damage our reputation, diminish the value of our brand names, and make users reluctant to use our products and services.

Online services companies may be subject to claims relating to information disseminated through their services, including claims alleging defamation, libel, breach of contract, invasion of privacy, negligence, copyright or trademark infringement, among other things. The laws relating to the liability of online services companies for information disseminated through their services are subject to frequent challenges both in the United States and foreign jurisdictions. Any liabilities incurred as a result of these matters could require us to incur additional costs and harm our reputation and our business.

Our potential liability to third parties for the user-provided content on our sites, particularly in jurisdictions outside the United States where laws governing Internet transactions are unsettled, may increase. If we become liable for information provided by our users and carried on our service in any jurisdiction in which we operate, we could be directly harmed and we may be forced to implement new measures to reduce our exposure to this liability, including expending substantial resources or discontinuing certain service offerings, which could harm our business.

Investments in both fixed-rate and floating-rate interest-earning instruments carry varying degrees of interest rate risk. The fair market value of our fixed-rate investment securities may be adversely impacted due to a rise in interest rates. In addition, relatively low interest rates limit our investment income.

We have a substantial amount of outstanding indebtedness and we may incur substantial additional indebtedness in the future, including under our commercial paper program and revolving credit facility or through public or private offerings of debt securities. Our outstanding indebtedness and any additional indebtedness we incur may have significant consequences, including, without limitation, any of the following:

The application of indirect taxes such as sales and use tax, value-added tax (“VAT”), goods and services tax (“GST”) (including the “digital services tax”), business tax, withholding tax and gross receipt tax, and tax information reporting obligations to ecommerce businesses like ours and to our sellers and buyers is a complex and evolving issue. Many of the fundamental statutes and regulations that impose these taxes were established before the adoption and growth of the Internet and ecommerce. Significant judgment is required to evaluate applicable tax obligations and as a result amounts recorded are estimates and are subject to adjustments. In many cases, it is not clear how existing statutes apply to ecommerce services. In addition, many state and foreign governments are looking for ways to increase revenues, which has resulted in legislative action, including new taxes on services and gross revenues and through other indirect taxes. There are many transactions that occur during the ordinary course of business for which the ultimate tax determination is uncertain.uncertain because it is not clear when and how new and existing statutes might apply to our business or to our sellers’ businesses. In some cases it may be difficult or impossible for us to validate information provided to us by our sellers on which we must rely to ascertain any obligations that may apply to us related to our sellers’ businesses, given the intricate nature of these regulations as they apply to particular products or services and that many of the products and services sold in our marketplace are unique or handmade. If we are found to be deficient in how we have addressed our tax obligations, our business could be adversely impacted.

From time to time, some taxing authorities in the United States have notified us that they believe we owe them certain taxes imposed on our services. These notifications have not resulted in any significant tax liabilities to date, but there is a risk that some jurisdiction may be successful in the future, which would harm our business.

The determination of our worldwide provision for income taxes and other tax liabilities requires estimation and significant judgment, and there can be from time to time transactions and calculations where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. Like many other multinational corporations, we are subject to tax in multiple U.S. and foreign jurisdictions and have structured our operations to reduce our effective tax rate. Our determination of our tax liability is always subject to audit and review by applicable domestic and foreign tax authorities, and we are currently undergoing a number of investigations, audits and reviews by taxing authorities throughout the world, including with respect to our business structure. Any adverse outcome of any such audit or review could harm our business, and the ultimate tax outcome may differ from the amounts recorded in our financial statements and may materially affect our financial results in the period or periods for which such determination is made. While we have established reserves based on assumptions and estimates that we believe are reasonable to cover such eventualities, these reserves may prove to be insufficient.

In addition, our future income taxes could be adversely affected by a shift in our jurisdictional earning mix, by changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities, as a result of gains on our foreign exchange risk management program, or changes in tax laws, regulations, or accounting principles, as well as certain discrete items.

We have acquired a significant number of businesses of varying size and scope, technologies, services, and products.products, and we maintain investments in certain businesses. We have also disposed of significant businesses and recently announced a portfolio review of our Korea business.businesses. We expect to continue to evaluate and consider a wide array of potential strategic transactions as part of our overall business strategy, including business combinations, acquisitions, and dispositions of businesses, technologies, services, products, and other assets, as well as strategic investments and joint ventures.

These transactions may involve significant challenges and risks, including:

We have made certain investments, including through joint ventures, in which we have a minority equity interest and/or lack management and operational control. The controlling joint venture partner in a joint venture may have business interests, strategies, or goals that are inconsistent with ours, and business decisions or other actions or omissions of the controlling joint venture partner or the joint venture company may result in harm to our reputation or adversely affect the value of our investment in the joint venture. Any circumstances, which may be out of our control, that adversely affect the value of our investments, or cost resulting from regulatory action or lawsuits in connection with our investments, could harm our business or negatively impact our financial results.

We have received an opinion from outside tax counsel to the effect that our distribution of 100% of the outstanding common stock of PayPal to our stockholders on July 17, 2015 (the “Distribution”) qualifies as a transaction that is described in Sections 355 and 368(a)(1)(D) of the Internal Revenue Code. The opinion relies on certain facts, assumptions, representations and undertakings from PayPal and us regarding the past and future conduct of the companies’ respective businesses and other matters. If any of these facts, assumptions, representations or undertakings are incorrect or not satisfied, our stockholders and we may not be able to rely on the opinion of tax counsel and could be subject to significant tax liabilities. Notwithstanding the opinion of tax counsel we have received, the IRS could determine on audit that the Distribution is taxable if it determines that any of these facts, assumptions, representations or undertakings are not correct or have been violated or if it disagrees with the conclusions in the opinion. If the Distribution is determined to be taxable for U.S. federal income tax purposes, our stockholders that are subject to U.S. federal income tax and we could incur significant U.S. federal income tax liabilities.

We entered into a separation and distribution agreement and various other agreements with PayPal to govern the Distribution and the relationship of the two companies. These agreements provide for specific indemnity and liability obligations and could lead to disputes between us and PayPal. The indemnity rights we have against PayPal under the agreements may not be sufficient to protect us. In addition, our indemnity obligations to PayPal may be significant and these risks could negatively affect our results of operations and financial condition.

This information is set forth under “Note 13 –12 — Commitments and Contingencies – Litigation and Other Legal Matters” to the consolidated financial statements included in Part IV, Item 15 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K is incorporated herein by reference.

The company paid a total of $447eBay Foundation helps to build economically vibrant and thriving communities. During 2021, the eBay Foundation granted over $14 million to support historically excluded entrepreneurs and $473our employee gift-matching program. The eBay Foundation also increased our employee gift-matching annual cap to $10,000 per employee, per year. To date, the eBay Foundation has awarded more than $76 million in cash dividends during the years ended December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively. In February 2021, we declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.18 per share of common stock to be paid on March 19, 2021 to stockholders of record as of March 1, 2021. The timing, declaration, amount and payment of any future cash dividends are at the discretion of the Board of Directors and will depend on many factors, including our available cash, working capital, financial condition, results of operations, capital requirements, covenants in our credit agreement, applicable law and other business considerations that our Board of Directors considers relevant.more than 1,800 nonprofits.

The graph below showsRecommerce has been an integral part of eBay’s purpose since the cumulative total stockholder returnCompany was founded in 1995. As a pioneer of an investment of $100 (and the reinvestment of any dividends thereafter)circular economy, eBay has created a space where people can buy and sell pre-owned goods. This helps preserve the world’s natural resources and reduces the Company’s carbon footprint by saving on December 31, 2015 (the last trading day for the year ended December 31, 2015)water and energy typically used in (i) our common stock, (ii) the Nasdaq Composite Index, (iii) the S&P 500 Indexproducing new goods and (iv) the S&P 500 Information Technology Index.saves them from being sent to landfills.

Our stock price performance showneBay continued its work to reach its goal of 100% renewable energy by 2025 and signed its second virtual power purchase agreement in 2021. In our continued efforts to address climate change, we announced an updated carbon reduction goal that has been approved by the Science Based Target initiative: eBay commits to reduce its own (scope 1 and scope 2) emissions 90% by 2030 from a 2019 base year and to reduce value chain (scope 3) emissions from downstream transportation and distribution by 20% in the graph below is not indicativesame timeframe. We will also be carbon neutral for our scope 1 and 2 emissions by the end of future stock price performance. The graph2021 and related information shall not be deemed “soliciting material” or be deemedeach year moving forward. eBay was ranked in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership National Top 100 and Top 30 Tech & Telecom for the second year. Additionally, we strive to be “filed” withintegrate best practices in our offices and data center operations and to continually reduce our environmental footprint. This year, eBay was also recognized for its commitment to sustainability and responsible business by its inclusion in the SEC, nor shall such information be incorporated by reference into any past or future filing withDow Jones Sustainability Indices World and North American Indices for the SEC, except tothird straight year. eBay also scored an A- on the extent that such filing specifically states that such graph and related information are incorporated by reference into such filing.CDP Climate Change questionnaire.

PurchasesOur platforms are designed to enable our buyers and sellers to leverage our economies of Equity Securities by the Issuerscale and Affiliated Purchaserscapital investments, such as in sales and marketing, mobile, customer acquisition, technology innovation and customer service.

We regularly review and manage our investments to ensure they support eBay’s strategic direction and complement our disciplined approach to value creation, profitability and capital allocation. eBay completed the three months ended December 31, 2020 was as follows:

In the three months ended December 31,first quarter of 2020, we repurchased approximately $419 millioncompleted the sale of our common stock under our stock repurchase program. As of December 31, 2020, a total of approximately $2.0StubHub to viagogo for $4.05 billion remained available for future repurchases of our common stock under our stock repurchase program. During February 2021, our Board authorized an additional $4.0 billion stock repurchase program, with no expiration from the date of authorization.in cash, subject to certain adjustments.

We expect, subject to market conditionsencounter vigorous competition in our business from numerous sources. Our users can list, sell, buy, and other uncertainties, to continue making opportunistic and programmatic repurchases of our common stock. However, our stock repurchase programs may be limited or terminated at any time without prior notice. The timing and actual number of shares repurchased will depend onpay for similar items through a variety of competing online, mobile and offline channels. These include, but are not limited to, retailers, distributors, liquidators, import and export companies, auctioneers, catalog and mail-order companies, directories, search engines, commerce participants (consumer-to-consumer, business-to-consumer and business-to-business), shopping channels and networks. As our product offerings continue to broaden into new categories of items and new commerce formats, we expect to face additional competition from other online, mobile and offline channels for those new offerings. We compete on the basis of price, product selection and services, and global scale.

For more information regarding competitive factors including corporateimpacting our business, see the information in “Item 1A: Risk Factors” under the captions “Substantial and increasingly intense competition worldwide in ecommerce may harm our business” and “We are subject to regulatory activity and antitrust litigation under competition laws that could adversely impact our business.”

With two additional states adopting Internet sales tax laws in 2021, some buyers across the U.S. encountered sales tax for the first time on eBay. To date, 45 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have enacted Internet sales tax legislation. Additionally, a digital service tax (DST) was implemented in Spain in 2021, and we are complying with the legislation. Our business will also be required to increase payments reporting requirements pricefor U.S. sellers as a result of federal legislation. Starting on January 1, 2022, all businesses that process payments are required to issue a Form 1099-K for all sellers who receive $600 or more in sales, a decrease from the previous reporting threshold of $20,000 and 200 transactions. Form 1099-Ks for the new thresholds will be issued in January 2023. Tax collection responsibility and the additional costs associated with complex sales and use tax collection, remittance and audit requirements, or reporting, could create additional burdens for buyers and sellers on our websites and mobile platforms.

For more information regarding regulatory risks, see the information in “Item 1A: Risk Factors” under the caption “Our business is subject to extensive government regulation and oversight, which could adversely impact our business” and “Our business and our sellers and buyers may be subject to sales and other market conditions and management’s determination as to the appropriate use oftax regimes in various jurisdictions, which may harm our cash. business.”

The eBay Marketplace uses a combination of proprietary technologies and services as well as technologies and services provided by others. We have developed intuitive user interfaces, buyer, seller and developer tools and transaction processing, database and network applications that help enable our users to reliably and securely complete transactions on our sites. Our technology infrastructure simplifies the storage and processing of large amounts of data, eases the deployment and operation of large-scale global products and services and automates much of the administration of large-scale clusters of computers. Our infrastructure has been designed around industry-standard architectures to reduce downtime in the event of outages or catastrophic occurrences.

The contents of our websites and webcasts and information that can be accessed through our websites and webcasts are not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K. 10-K or in any other report or document we file with (or furnish to) the SEC, and any references to our websites and webcasts are intended to be inactive textual references only.

The summary of risks below provides an overview of the principal risks we are exposed to in the normal course of our business activities:

Upon closing of the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019transaction to transfer the Classifieds business, we received approximately 540 million Adevinta shares, a portion of which was later sold to Permira. Fluctuations in Adevinta’s share price, financial results and 2018 are derived fromfluctuations in exchange rates could result in material changes in our audited consolidated financial statements. Thebalance sheet and our consolidated statement of income data forincome. In addition, our ability to sell our Adevinta shares in the years ended December 31, 2017future will be subject to market conditions and 2016other factors which could impact the value we are able to realize from any such sales.

We have received an opinion from outside tax counsel to the effect that our distribution of 100% of the outstanding common stock of PayPal to our stockholders on July 17, 2015 (the “Distribution”) qualifies as a transaction that is described in Sections 355 and 368(a)(1)(D) of the Internal Revenue Code. The opinion relies on certain facts, assumptions, representations and undertakings from PayPal and us regarding the past and future conduct of the companies’ respective businesses and other matters. If any of these facts, assumptions, representations or undertakings are incorrect or not satisfied, our stockholders and we may not be able to rely on the opinion of tax counsel and could be subject to significant tax liabilities. Notwithstanding the opinion of tax counsel we have received, the IRS could determine on audit that the Distribution is taxable if it determines that any of these facts, assumptions, representations or undertakings are not correct or have been adjustedviolated or if it disagrees with the conclusions in the opinion. If the Distribution is determined to be taxable for discontinued operations.U.S. federal income tax purposes, our stockholders that are subject to U.S. federal income tax and we could incur significant U.S. federal income tax liabilities.

We entered into a separation and distribution agreement and various other agreements with PayPal to govern the Distribution and the relationship of the two companies. These agreements provide for specific indemnity and liability obligations and could lead to disputes between us and PayPal. The consolidated balance sheetindemnity rights we have against PayPal under the agreements may not be sufficient to protect us. In addition, our indemnity obligations to PayPal may be significant and these risks could negatively affect our results of operations and financial condition.