Luxury brand wins in battle of fakesArticle from: Agence France-PresseFont size: Decrease Increase Email article: Email Print article: Print From correspondents in Paris
June 30, 2008 09:31pm

A PARIS court has ordered online auction site eBay to pay €40 million ($65.8m ) in damages to Louis Vuitton for selling fake luxury goods online.

The commercial court ruled in favour of six LVMH brands that accused eBay of putting on sale fake handbags, clothes and other luxury goods, and of illicit sales of perfumes, in a case that began a year and a half ago.

eBay, the world’s biggest online auctioneer, was ordered to pay €19.28m to LVMH and €16.3m to its sister company Christian Dior Couture for damage to their brand images and causing moral harm.

It must also pay €3.25m to four perfume brands – Christian Dior, Kenzo, Givenchy and Guerlain – for sales in violation of its authorised network.

The court barred eBay, which said it would appeal against the ruling, from advertising the cosmetic or perfume brands on its website.

LVMH had argued eBay had failed to do enough to prevent the sale of counterfeit copies of their goods and that it did not have legal permission to sell its authentic products.

The ruling came amid a flurry of legal action against the online giant, which claims to have some 84 million active users in 39 markets worldwide.

Earlier this month, eBay was convicted by a French court of selling counterfeit goods and ordered to pay €20,000 in damages to French luxury group Hermes.

The court ruling, which marked a first in France, found eBay directly responsible for the sale on its website of three Hermes bags including two fakes, for a total of €3000.

France’s traditional auctioneers took legal action against the online auctioneer in December, accusing it of encouraging trade in pirated and stolen goods.

A council representing the auction industry also accuses the internet trader of breaking a French 2000 law that requires all auctioneers to be approved by the state.

According to eBay the total value of items sold on its trading platforms in 2007 was nearly $US60 billion ($62.5 billion).

Interesting, I bet this has ebay shitting bricks, or should I say golf clubs!

Very interesting to see what eventuates now – would have thought ebay would have covered themselves legally what with stolen goods and fakes etc deemed to be sold from the onset..

hmm it’s like those bits of paper you sign when you go to a motor sport event, if something happens to you and you get hurt it’s not their fault… rubbish, get a good lawyer and see what happens.

I bet ebay thought they had it covered, then one of these perfume companies went and and got a better lawyer….

Naivety and ego same as Napster.
I think it was just a matter of time before this would be raised,
If E Bay was allowing the sale of fake or stolen merchandise and not taking reasonable steps to stop it, then being on the internet should not be any protection from prosecution.

ebay is as big on the internet as microsoft is in Pcs

Ebay like any wholesaler, retailer, auction site etc has a duty of care at the minimal of civil liability to their customers to protect them from faulty, stolen, fake goods. How they go about this can be in a myriad of ways and any number of disclaimers can be written and advertised. They all mean shite, if in court the civil aspect can be met.

In criminal law it is ‘Beyond any reasonable doubt’, civily, it is ’ On the balance of probabilities’.

Does Ebay know that people are selling fake, stolen, faulty gear on the site? Yep. (If they don’t they are living on another planet) What do they do about it? 1. Endeavour to identify the sites and close them off. 2. Introduce Paypal. Is this enough at Civil Law? Nup.

The fact they now it is happening puts them in a big problem with the civil liability aspect. People just need the cash to be able to take them on. Individuals cannot see the value, you lose $10,000 on a dud transaction, but it could cost you another $30,000 to get it back. (Still no guarantee of victory as each Judge or Arbitrator may have a different view) They report their matter to the cops and hope for some luck through the criminal investigation side of things with the expectation of compensation fromthe crook through the courts.

Different story for the big end of town, they have the cash, the legal teams and would probably argue successfully for costs as well.

Big thing in all this is that it is occurring in France, where a very arbitrary legal system is in place. I doubt Ebay will have any fun in fighting these decisions.

Ebay may be making Billions, but if the major manufacturers that are being ripped take up a class action over the time they have been in business and win, Ebay is Egone.