eBay CEO Meg Whitman told reporters in Brussels yesterday that "2006 will be more of a year of digestion and integration" for eBay as it "digests" acquisitions from last year, such as Skype.

Whitman was asked about Tiffany's lawsuit against eBay for allowing the sales of counterfeits on its site. IDG News Service reported that Whitman said she was disappointed at the lawsuit, and said the number of transactions resulting in disputes is "less than one hundredth of 1 percent" and falling, and that customer support representatives get involved in cases (http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,124648,00.asp). (Note that eBay has long said that the incidence of confirmed fraud on its site is less than one one-hundredth of one percent of all the listings on its site, and that it is up to buyers and sellers to work out problems.)

eBay released a study that showed 170,732 Europeans relied on trading on eBay for all or part of their income, according to Reuters (http://digbig.com/4gfjc). Trading activity in Europe generated sales worth $947 million in 2004, according to the New York Times, which reported that Whitman advised European governments to create a harmonized value added tax system for all 25 countries in the EU (http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/07/business/ebay.php).