eBay Pushes Sellers To Oppose Online Sales Tax Legislation

It happened for most of Amazon, and now it is about to happen for eBay. Around 9:30 AM (PDT), 12:30 PM (EDT), online marketplace site, eBay, sent out emails to thousands of users, including most of the sellers, opposing against the pending federal sales tax legislation in the Senate. In the email, eBay said that the bill unfairly burdens small online merchants and asked its users to send an email message to members of Congress asking for changes in the pending legislation.

In the email, John Donahoe, CEO of eBay, says that the legislation included an exemption for merchants that generate less than 1 million USD in out-of-state revenue every year, but argued that merchants with less than 10 million USD in out-of-state sales every year should also be exempted in the legislation. He says that if the legislation were to pass without any revision, he would have to reform his business, including eBay, to get below the 1 million USD level.

This is what the message had to say…

Though this is probably the first time eBay used its list of users to support them in a business legislation, this is not the first time eBay has done something like this. Back in 2006, when Meg Whitman was CEO of the company, emailed millions of its users (though it was only about 10 million emails) about net neutrality and the need to keep the Internet open.

As of right now, the bill is due to be voted on in the coming days. We will have to see if anything changes for the online merchant.