eBay Inc. - Military Domain Audit

Company: eBay Inc. Audit Phase: Military - Military & Defence Supply Chain Evidence cut-off: June 2026 Evidence base: Research memo compiled June 2026. All findings are grounded in cited sources. Claims for which no supporting evidence was found are stated explicitly using the phrase “No public evidence identified.”

Direct Defence Contracting & Procurement

eBay Inc. is an e-commerce marketplace operator whose principal business consists of facilitating third-party commercial transactions on its platform ¹. No public evidence identified of any contract, tender award, framework agreement, or memorandum of understanding between eBay Inc. and the Israeli Ministry of Defence (IMOD), Israel Defence Forces (IDF), Israel Prison Service, Israel Border Police, or any other Israeli state security body. This absence has been cross-checked against the OHCHR database of business enterprises involved in Israeli settlement activities (September 2025 update) ², the UN Special Rapporteur report A/HRC/59/23 of 2 July 2025 ³, the PAX June 2024 report on companies arming Israel ⁴, the DBIO “Don’t Buy Into Occupation V” November 2025 report ⁵, the AFSC Gaza Genocide Companies list ⁶, the Wikipedia list of companies operating in West Bank settlements ⁷, the Wikipedia list of companies involved in the Gaza war ⁸, and eBay’s own SEC Form 10-K filings for FY2023 ⁹ and FY2024 ¹.

No public evidence identified of eBay Inc. appearing in SIBAT (Israel’s Defence Export & Defence Cooperation Directorate) directories, international defence exhibition catalogues, or any defence procurement registry in connection with Israeli state security contracts.

No public evidence identified of corporate press releases, government announcements, or trade press reports detailing defence cooperation, joint ventures, or formal partnership agreements between eBay Inc. and Israeli defence entities.

eBay’s FY2024 10-K discloses the “ongoing wars in Ukraine and in Israel and Gaza, including the related disruptions to international shipping in the Red Sea” as a macroeconomic risk factor affecting buyer and seller activity, but the filing contains no defence-specific contractual disclosures and identifies no supply relationships with Israeli security bodies ¹. The same civilian-risk framing appears in the FY2023 10-K ⁹.

Dual-Use Products & Tactical Variants

eBay Inc. is an e-commerce marketplace operator that does not design or manufacture products ¹. No public evidence identified of eBay Inc. manufacturing, developing, or marketing ruggedised, tactical, mil-spec, or defence-grade product variants to Israeli security forces or any other military customer.

Third-party IDF-associated marketplace listings: The eBay marketplace hosts third-party sellers offering IDF surplus militaria, uniforms, and tactical gear through a dedicated “Israel Defense Forces Collectible” category carrying approximately 786 listings as of June 2026 ¹⁰ and a dedicated “IDF Surplus” search channel ¹¹. These are commercial third-party sales facilitated by the eBay platform and do not constitute eBay Inc. corporate supply to Israeli security forces ¹⁰¹¹.

2015 Criminal Case - Marketplace Platform Misuse for Illegal Export: In October 2015, the Rehovot Magistrate Court (Israel) convicted Israeli citizen Ilan Shimon Yaacobi for selling IDF surplus military transceivers - including devices with “advanced encryption capabilities” - through eBay’s marketplace to unknown international buyers over approximately a decade, generating more than US$200,000 in proceeds in violation of Israel’s Defence Exports Control Law ¹²¹³. This conviction was documented as the first under that statute ¹³. The sentence imposed comprised a NIS 70,000 fine (approximately US$17,800) plus a 4.5-month imprisonment term converted to community service ¹²¹³. eBay Inc. was the platform through which the third-party seller operated; the case record contains no indication that eBay Inc. itself was implicated, investigated, or sanctioned ¹²¹⁴.

Platform Policy on Prohibited Military Items: eBay’s published marketplace policy explicitly prohibits listings of items subject to ITAR Part 121 (US Munitions List), including military ordnance, demilitarised weapons, explosives, and ITAR-controlled technical data ¹⁵. No public evidence identified of enforcement actions by US export control authorities against eBay Inc. in connection with Israeli military end-users.

2010 IDF Surplus Resale Platform Reference: Haaretz reported in July 2010 that the IDF launched its own internal surplus equipment resale website explicitly modelled on the eBay commercial platform ¹⁶. This report is contextual only; it documents the IDF’s independent adoption of the eBay business model for an IDF-operated system and does not constitute any contractual or supply relationship between eBay Inc. and the IDF ¹⁶.

Heavy Machinery, Construction & Infrastructure

eBay Inc. does not design, manufacture, supply, or operate heavy machinery, construction equipment, or engineering vehicles ¹. No public evidence identified of eBay Inc.’s equipment, vehicles, or machinery being used in construction, demolition, or infrastructure maintenance activity within Israeli settlements, along the separation barrier, at military installations, or elsewhere in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

No public evidence identified of any contract between eBay Inc. and any counterparty for the construction, maintenance, servicing, or expansion of checkpoints, detention facilities, military bases, the separation barrier, or settlement infrastructure. eBay does not appear in the OHCHR database of 158 enterprises across 11 countries documented as involved in Israeli settlement activities (September 2025 update) ², the Wikipedia list of companies operating in West Bank settlements ⁷, or the DBIO “Don’t Buy Into Occupation V” November 2025 report covering 104 companies across technology, infrastructure, and financial sectors ⁵.

No public evidence identified of direct or indirect supply by eBay Inc. of construction materials, plant, vehicles, or engineering services to any party engaged in settlement development or military construction in the occupied territories.

Supply Chain Integration with Defence Primes

No public evidence identified of any verified supply relationship between eBay Inc. and Israeli defence prime contractors, including Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, or Israel Military Industries / Elbit Land Systems.

No public evidence identified of component supply agreements, sub-system contracts, materials supply, or technology licensing between eBay Inc. and any Israeli defence manufacturer. eBay is absent from the PAX June 2024 report identifying Boeing, General Dynamics, Leonardo, Lockheed Martin, RTX, and Rolls-Royce as the primary arms producers supplying Israel ⁴ and from the DBIO “Don’t Buy Into Occupation V” November 2025 report identifying 104 companies across multiple sectors ⁵.

No public evidence identified of joint development programmes, co-production agreements, technology transfer arrangements, or licensed manufacturing agreements between eBay Inc. and Israeli defence firms.

Corrigon Acquisition (2016): eBay acquired Israeli image-recognition startup Corrigon in 2016 for the stated commercial purpose of improving product search and visual identification on the eBay marketplace ¹⁷. No evidence of any military or defence contract relationship involving Corrigon, nor any verified connection between Corrigon’s founders and Israeli defence or intelligence units. The acquisition is a commercial technology purchase with no identified defence supply chain dimension ¹⁷.

Logistical Sustainment & Base Services

No public evidence identified of any verified contract between eBay Inc. and IDF bases, military training facilities, detention centres, or security installations for catering, transport, fuel, waste management, facilities maintenance, telecommunications, or any other sustainment or base-support service.

No public evidence identified of any eBay service contracts covering military or security installations in the West Bank, Golan Heights, East Jerusalem, or the Negev desert.

Consumer Shipping Interruptions - Not Military Logistics: Following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, eBay temporarily suspended US international shipping to Israel, citing carrier disruptions, with official seller protections in effect from September 25, 2023 through January 31, 2024 ¹⁸¹⁹. US international shipping services to Israel were formally restored on July 15, 2025 ²⁰. In March 2026, eBay again temporarily paused US international shipping to Israel and six other Middle Eastern countries - Bahrain, UAE, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Lebanon, and Jordan - citing ongoing carrier disruptions in the region ²¹²². These were civilian consumer e-commerce disruptions attributed to regional logistics and carrier constraints ^18192122; No public evidence identified that eBay’s shipping services were used to handle Israeli defence logistics, military cargo, or arms shipments.

Munitions, Weapons Systems & Strategic Platforms

eBay Inc. is not a defence prime contractor, licensed weapons manufacturer, or munitions producer ¹. No public evidence identified of any eBay Inc. role in the development, manufacture, integration, or supply of munitions, precision-guided weapons, artillery, explosives, propellants, or precursor materials to Israeli forces.

No public evidence identified of any eBay Inc. involvement in Israel’s strategic defence platforms, including Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow ballistic missile defence systems, F-35 or other combat aircraft, Merkava main battle tanks, warships, or ballistic missile programmes. While the eBay marketplace hosts third-party commercial sales of collectible insignia and memorabilia associated with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Iron Dome imagery ¹⁰, this civilian merchandise trade does not constitute corporate supply to any strategic weapons platform.

No public evidence identified of sub-system supply, critical component contracts, or integration services linking eBay Inc. to any Israeli lethal platform programme. eBay is not named in the AFSC Gaza Genocide Companies list ⁶, the PAX arms producers report ⁴, or the UN A/HRC/59/23 Special Rapporteur report, which identifies technology companies in military, surveillance, and cloud-services roles including Amazon, Google/Alphabet, Microsoft, and Palantir ³.

Export Licensing, Regulatory & Legal History

No public evidence identified of any government decision in any jurisdiction to grant, deny, suspend, or revoke export licences for eBay Inc.’s products or services to Israeli military or security end-users.

No public evidence identified of investigations, enforcement actions, penalty notices, or citations relating to eBay Inc.’s compliance with arms embargoes, export control regimes, or sanctions affecting defence trade with Israel.

2015 Third-Party Export Control Violation (Israel): The 2015 Rehovot Magistrate Court conviction of Ilan Shimon Yaacobi established the first criminal precedent under Israel’s Defence Exports Control Law through use of the eBay platform as the transactional medium ¹²¹³¹⁴. The case is cited in Israeli legal commentary on export enforcement as a landmark in that regime’s development ¹⁴. eBay Inc. was not a named respondent and faced no regulatory sanction in those proceedings ¹².

Israel Transfer Pricing Tax Dispute: The only other Israeli court proceeding identified naming eBay as a party is Israel Tax Authorities vs. eBay Marketplace Israel Ltd., Israeli District Court, Case Nos. AM 47399-04-18 / AM 54654-05-19, in which the court ruled in April 2024 in favour of the tax authority, finding that eBay’s Israeli subsidiary should be assessed as a low-risk distributor by reference to turnover rather than cost-plus accounting ²³. No military, defence, or human rights dimension is documented in this proceeding.

Regulatory Platform Compliance: eBay’s marketplace policy expressly prohibits listings covering items on ITAR Part 121 (US Munitions List) ¹⁵. eBay’s FY2023 10-K ⁹ and FY2024 10-K ¹ contain no disclosures of export licence proceedings, arms embargo investigations, or regulatory sanctions related to Israeli defence trade. No public evidence identified of any civil or criminal enforcement action against eBay Inc. by the US Departments of Commerce, State, or Treasury arising from Israeli defence-related export compliance matters.

Civil Society Scrutiny & Documented Investigations

Major NGO and Intergovernmental Reports - eBay Absent from All Primary Databases:

eBay Inc. is not listed in the OHCHR database of business enterprises involved in Israeli settlement activities, which was updated in September 2025 to cover 158 enterprises across 11 countries in categories including settlement construction, surveillance, natural resource extraction, and financial operations ²⁷. eBay Inc. is not named in UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s report A/HRC/59/23, “From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide” (2 July 2025), which cites Amazon, Google/Alphabet, Microsoft, and Palantir among technology companies providing military, surveillance, or cloud services to Israeli forces ³. eBay Inc. is not listed in the PAX June 2024 report on companies arming Israel and their financiers, which identifies Boeing, General Dynamics, Leonardo, Lockheed Martin, RTX, and Rolls-Royce as the six primary arms producers ⁴. eBay Inc. is not included among the 104 companies in the DBIO “Don’t Buy Into Occupation V” report of November 2025, which names Amazon, Boeing, Cellebrite DI, Airbnb, Bank Hapoalim, and CAF as examples across sectors ⁵. eBay Inc. does not appear in the AFSC Gaza Genocide Companies list of 58 weapons manufacturers and high-tech firms with documented Israeli defence supply relationships ⁶. eBay is not among the companies catalogued in the Wikipedia inventory of companies operating in West Bank settlements ⁷ or the Wikipedia list of companies involved in the Gaza war ⁸.

Board-Level Association - Adriane Brown and Axon Enterprise: eBay board member Adriane Brown has served as an eBay director since 2017 and chairs the Compensation and Human Capital Committee ²⁴. Since June 2020 she has concurrently served on the board of Axon Enterprise (formerly TASER International) ²⁵. Axon Enterprise is documented by AFSC Investigate for supplying approximately 1,800 Taser X26P electric stun guns to Israeli military, police, prison services, and the Population and Immigration Authority between 2016 and 2023 ²⁶. B’Tselem documented that Israeli soldiers “routinely used Tasers” to inflict pain on detained Palestinians during the 2023–2025 conflict, and a July 2024 indictment cited Taser use on a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman detention camp ²⁶. This connection is a dual-board directorship association and does not constitute a direct eBay Inc. corporate supply relationship to Israeli forces ²⁴²⁵²⁶.

eBay Israel R&D Centre Closure (2025–2026): eBay announced in May 2025 that it would close its R&D centre in Netanya, Israel, by the first quarter of 2026, resulting in the termination of approximately 200 employees ^2728293031. eBay’s official statement attributed the decision to continuous evaluation of its operating model in line with long-term strategic goals and did not reference the Gaza conflict ²⁸³⁰. Pro-Palestinian commentary framed the closure as a response to the war in Gaza ³², a characterisation eBay’s public communications did not confirm ²⁸³⁰.

Anti-Boycott Advocacy Complaint (April 2024): Following eBay’s temporary suspension of US international shipping to Israel from October 2023, Israeli advocacy organisations - StandWithUs, the National Jewish Advocacy Center, and Zachor Legal Institute - wrote to eBay CEO Jamie Iannone in April 2024 alleging that the shipping pause and elevated pricing for Israel shipments may have violated US federal and state anti-boycott laws, requesting a response by April 30, 2024 ³³³⁴. No public evidence identified of any eBay response to this letter in publicly accessible sources. This complaint concerned eBay’s commercial conduct during a period of carrier disruption and carries no military supply chain dimension ³³³⁴.

BDS Movement Listings: Informal boycott listings citing eBay - such as boycottisraeli.biz - ground the designation in eBay’s commercial R&D centre presence in Israel, not in any military supply chain activity ³⁵. At least one BDS-monitoring source rates eBay as “Boycott Safe,” stating there is “no verified evidence proving that eBay has any ties to Israel” from a BDS or military-supply perspective ³⁶.

Corporate Policy Statements on Defence Engagement: No public statements, policy changes, contract terminations, or end-use monitoring commitments specifically addressing a defence supply chain relationship with Israeli forces have been issued by eBay Inc.

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