France – Court: eBay Must Pay $61 Million In Damages in Sale of Fakes

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    France – A French court on Monday ordered the online auction giant eBay to pay 38.6 million euros, or $61 million, in damages to the French luxury goods company LVMH, in the latest round in a long-running legal battle over the sale of counterfeit goods on the Internet.

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    LVMH, a maker of high-end leather goods, perfumes and other fashion and luxury products, successfully challenged eBay for a second time in the French court, arguing that 90 percent of the Louis Vuitton bags and Dior perfumes sold on eBay are fakes.

    The court ruled that eBay, which earns a commission on the sales, was not doing enough to stamp out counterfeit sales.

    EBay vowed to appeal the ruling in a brief statement issued immediately after the decision was announced.

    “When counterfeits appear on our site we take them down swiftly, and today’s ruling is not about our fight against counterfeiting,” eBay said in a statement from Paris. “It’s about an attempt by LMVH to protect uncompetitive commercial practices at the expense of consumer choice and the livelihood of law-abiding sellers that eBay empowers every day. We will fight this ruling on their behalf.”

    EBay has faced several legal challenges in France, where luxury goods companies are fiercely protective of their brands. In another recent case, a court ordered eBay to pay 20,000 euros to Hermes International in Paris for not properly vetting the sale of handbags.

    That court concluded that eBay was not doing enough to combat counterfeit sales and should be forcing sellers to post more product information to guarantee authenticity, like series numbers.

    The issue has resonated outside France. The jeweler Tiffany & Company has sued eBay in the United States on similar grounds; a decision is pending in the case.

    LVMH has pursued other Internet companies as well, saying they help counterfeiters by provided a marketplace for the items. The luxury goods company has won several rounds against Google in France in a quest to force the search engine to remove online advertising from counterfeiters whose spots appear when the names of LVMH brands are typed in.


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    5 Comments
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    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    I am a long-time Ebay user. Mostly, I have had good experiences. but, I purchased a fake rolex watch on Ebay, and notified them about it. the seller had all fakes. Ebay did nothing at all about it and the crook continues to sell fake worthless watches as Rolexes on Ebay. Ebay is useless when it comes to enforcement against frauds.

    Big Event
    Big Event
    15 years ago

    I was selling Nokia N95 phones last year. If I sold it on auction then the last minute a nut case would jack it up, just to start bargaining about money orders & out of country shipping etc, or just plain not paying. If it was sold buy it now, we sometimes had people with good feedbacks buying, that is till Ebay notified us that those accounts were hacked in. We notified them endless times to no avail.

    The question remains what can they do? These crooks have a million accounts its endless, or they hack another one quicker that you can cancel their first ones. Furthermore how can Ebay know whats authentic?

    Please enlighten anyone???

    Monsey One
    Monsey One
    15 years ago

    I think that in the US if its a civil lawsuit are responsible for damaging the other companies dosent matter if you knew or not if the manufacture got hurt in any way you are responsible

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    eBay should not be forced to do the police work for major companies, they are just a forum where people get to sell their surplus items. It’s this that makes the US so special, giving everyone the opportunity to succeed.

    Unfortunately eBay has began to stifle small sellers and will most likely be more successful in europe, but will lose many customers in the US. In europe everything is controlled by the gov. and rich enterprizes and their culture likes it that way, but in America, that’s unacceptable. We are the land of opportunity,

    Its no joke
    Its no joke
    15 years ago

    They should make buyers and sellers provide – SS, Bank accounts and credit card numbers (just like pay pal)and do all kind of address checks to make sure they know who they person selling really is