About

The Italy based in-house legal team of American multinational e-commerce corporation eBay is part of the Central and Southern Europe legal team. This wider team covers all EU markets except for the UK. Ebay has two lawyers based in Milan, director, head of legal Italy Andrea Moretti and senior legal counsel Michele Laurino. ‘We like to say that we never say “no” to business colleagues. Instead of blocking projects, we sit with them, listen to their needs, walk them to the right direction by providing legal advice so to make their projects happen mitigating risks. For those reasons, our team ethos is “enable the business while protecting the company”’, says Moretti. The eBay business has recently gone through a global reorganisation, by creating a function called “markets”, accountable for the operations in each and any local territories. Accordingly, the vice president legal has broadened his responsibilities from the EU to markets covering all jurisdictions. Within that, the EU legal team has been reorganised in two teams with UK on one side and Central and Southern Europe on the other. The Italian legal team has broadened its competences to government affairs, managing the relations with the Italian Agencies and Ministries and advising on all related regulatory matters. In addition to that, it has represented the company on multiple occasions to the Italian and European parliament by presenting projects such as the Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Agriculture. This was named as the most successful case of protection in Italy in the Charter of Milan Expo, and has been instrumental in education on the global role of the company within the digital economy. Within this remit, the team has handled crucial matters for eBay with senior representatives from institutions. Very important to the team is also its strong values in safeguarding diversity and inclusion, and creating a healthy work environment. ‘That is why we built a work environment where people smile and are satisfied with their daily assignments’, says Moretti.