eBay Fined over Fakes

Techtree News Staff, Jul 02, 2008 0800 hrs IST

A Paris court has ordered the online auctioneer eBay to pay US $61 million in damages to Louis Vuitton for selling fake luxury goods online.

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Online auctioneer eBay has been ordered by a French court to pay over $61 million to fashion label - LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA for selling counterfeit goods on its site. LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA is home to prestigious brands such as Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Fendi, Emilio Pucci, and Marc Jacobs.

Allegedly, eBay had a sale of Louis Vuitton fakes; LVMH questioned whether the Internet is a free-for-all for the 'most hateful, parasitic practices'. eBay countered saying that LVMH's actions had more to do with protecting uncompetitive commercial practices at the costs of consumer choice and the livelihood of law-abiding sellers empowered by eBay than protesting against counterfeits. A spokesperson for eBay said the auctioneer plans to appeal the ruling.

All said, this isn't the first such instance of eBay having been sued by a luxury brand; past plaintiffs against the online auctioneer include the likes of Tiffany and Company (USA), Montres Rolex SA (Germany), and L'Oreal SA (Europe).

eBay is like a magnet for counterfeiters mainly because of the sheer volume of products sold through its auction system as also the difficulty in patrolling fast-moving transactions. And like Google, eBay too relies on intellectual-property (IP) owners to alert the company about suspicious postings/products on its site. Nevertheless, the auctioneer maintains it spends millions of dollars every year trying to clean up fakes from its site.

USER COMMENTS

Finally a company BIGGER than eBay took to task & quite frankly it was a hollow judgement at only $61,000,000.00 USD.eBay uses "The WAR of Attrition" by wearing people who have been ripped off by sending instructions with links.It frustrates so many ebay members they give up and eat the costs.They change policies weekly to avoid prosecution for looking the other way hourly.YOU SEE WHEN A SELLER DOING EXTREMELY HIGH VOLUME WITH HUNDREDS OF NEGATIVES (it was thousands of Negatives prior to 31 May, 2008) ebay puts the ALMIGHTY DOLLAR FIRST and throws the little guy off of eBay many times for life.My hats off to LVMH for being powerful enough to expose ebay for the dishonest business ethics and practices.

by Anderson, Rockport,Massachusetts USA, on Jul 08, 2008 09:41 AM, Report abuse Reply

I am an ebay seller, and use the site fro selling designer wear goods, bought at a high price from manufacturers who only supply in bulk and for large money orders. My goods are all genuine & ahve recently had my account stopped for goodness knows how long, leaving me in a big money loss osition with my goods. So ebay is doing what it can. But at the same time, targetting innocent sellers like my self who may have to take their business elsewhere. Something i do not want to consider as ebay IS the biggest largest market to trade on, audience wise. So I'm glad ebay are appealing and hope are successful in doing so, as the bottom lin ewill always remain the same- counterfeits will always exist, and those who can not afford the authentic items will be more than happy to purchase a counterfeit item for a bargain of the price.

by azad, Birmingham, on Jul 04, 2008 12:29 AM, Report abuse Reply

They wouldn't get $60 millions by suing the seller, so they obviously target the one with the most money.

by jjr, london, on Jul 03, 2008 06:42 PM, Report abuse Reply

I seriously fail to understand what ebay could do to prevent fakes on its site from being sold. Frankly, i would expect a real buyer for LV to go to their showroom to buy their stuff. If they expect to get an LV in an auction or at a discount, they are not really worthy of the brand name. On the part of LV, they should have sued the seller instead of shooting the messenger. Although I am not at all a fan of ebay, I realise that the presence of such 'ebay's is important for consumer choice and comfort. This appears to be a stupid ruling.

by Kaushik, Delhi, on Jul 03, 2008 02:14 AM, Report abuse Reply

Sue the seller... Ebay IS the seller, so they got it right.

by Ohhh, Noooo, Tampa, on Jul 03, 2008 01:05 PM, Report abuse