eBay agrees to abide by Russian law on Internet data storage - report

MOSCOW, April 7 (RAPSI) - eBay Inc. has agreed to store the personal data of Russian nationals on servers in Russia in accordance with a law that takes effect on September 1, Kommersant newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The decision was made after Vladimir Dolgov, eBay's general director for Russia, met last Friday with Antonina Priyezzhayeva, deputy chief of communications regulator Roskomnadzor, according to Kommersant.

Dolgov told the newspaper that eBay wanted to clarify some issues regarding the law.

eBay is currently transferring data from Switzerland to Russia, according to Kommersant, citing people familiar with the situation.

The company did not specify the amount of data that will have to be transferred or whether eBay would use its own servers or lease storage space, Kommersant reported.

A representative of PayPal, owned by eBay Inc., also reportedly attended the meeting and vowed to abide by the law.

As reported earlier, the adoption of the personal data storage law prompted complaints from a number of companies.

Internet companies claimed that they would have to suspend operations because they would not be ready to follow the rules by September 1.

Internet ombudsman Dmitry Marinichev proposed in March amending the law to allow storage of personal data of Russian nationals outside Russia with their permission.