As a publicly traded company, eBay presents risk factors in its U.S. Securities and Exchange (SEC) filings, including legal matters, and describes how they could impact the business going forward. In its current 10K filed with the SEC this week, eBay discusses the impact of its campaign of changes to the Marketplaces unit:

We have announced changes to our Marketplaces business intended to drive more sales and improve seller efficiency. Some of the changes that we have announced to date have been controversial with, and led to dissatisfaction among, our sellers, and additional changes that we announce in the future may also be negatively received by some of our sellers. Given the number of recent changes that we have made to our policies and pricing, it may take our sellers some time to fully assess and adjust to these changes, and sellers may elect to reduce volume while making such assessments and adjustments or in response to these changes. If any of these changes cause sellers to move their business (in whole or in part) away from our websites or otherwise fail to improve gross merchandise volume or the number of successful listings, our operating results and profitability will be harmed.

The company goes on to say that its mix of sales would continue to shift towards a fixed-price format. "Accordingly, we have eliminated some of the features related to our traditional auction-style format and expect others will become less meaningful to, and used less frequently by, our sellers, which would result in a corresponding decrease in revenues from such features. In addition, we expect that the costs associated with our seller discount programs will increase as more sellers will become eligible for such discounts."

eBay also said changes to its dispute resolution process in which it generally reimburses buyers for the full amount of an item's purchase price and shipping costs could increase its costs and loss rate.

"We expect that our costs associated with resolutions will increase as we make these changes to our resolutions policies and process. These changes, together with any further changes that we may make to our resolutions process in the future, may be negatively received by, and lead to dissatisfaction on the part of, our sellers. These changes may also result in an increase in buyer fraud and associated transaction losses. In addition, eBay does not have the same rights of recoupment against sellers as PayPal, which may result in higher costs to operate the program."

The Wall Street Journal noted that 10K also states that the lawsuit against eBay's Bill Me Later unit could force the company to alter operations, cut some fees and pay substantial damages that would adversely affect business.

Government regulation is also cited as a risk to Bill Me Later. "Although Bill Me Later does not originate loans, one or more jurisdictions may conclude that Bill Me Later is a lender or money transmitter or loan broker, which could subject us to liability or regulation in one or more jurisdictions."

Likewise, eBay's PayPal unit is at risk from regulation. "If our Payments business is found to be subject to or in violation of any laws or regulations, including those governing money transmission, electronic funds transfers, money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, banking and lending, it could be subject to liability, licensure and regulatory approval and may be forced to change its business practices."

Government regulation continues to be a risk to eBay, including a push for legislation by retail trade associations that would make eBay liable for the sale of stolen property or would ban certain categories of goods from sale on eBay, including gift cards and health and beauty products. "No such legislation has passed. Nonetheless, the proponents continue to seek passage of such legislation, and if any of these laws are adopted they could harm our business."

The full filing with financial data can be found on the SEC website.

eBay CEO John Donahoe will be speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco on February 24. eBay has not yet announced the date of its annual meeting.