Zut alors! French court rules against eBay in luxury goods suit

You'd think the parent company of $1,500 Louis Vuitton handbags would be able to tolerate a few fakes on eBay. Not so.

And a French court agreed on Monday, ordering the online auction giant to pay $61 million (38.6 million euros) to luxury goods powerhouse LVMH, according to Reuters. LVMH, along with other luxury-brand groups like Tiffany & Co. and Hermes, has claimed that eBay isn't strict enough about policing the sale of counterfeit goods on its site.

eBay promptly appealed the court decision, saying that LVMH was simply trying to crack down on competition; eBay makes money off any LVMH goods sold on its site, real or fake, whereas LVMH itself does not.

LVMH has an impressive portfolio containing a whole lot of brands that Kanye West has probably name-dropped in multiple songs, like Louis Vuitton, Acqua di Parma, Thomas Pink, Dior, Givenchy, Moet & Chandon, De Beers, and Marc Jacobs.

Monday's ruling encompassed a number of individual cases brought by LVMH brands like Dior Couture, Guerlain, Givenchy, and Kenzo. The 38.6 million euros awarded fell short of the 50 million euros that the luxury goods house had claimed in damages.

[Understarsidream]

Good. Ebay is nothing but the worlds largests fencing/counterfeit goods ring. They do almost nothing even when notified the sellers are posting fake goods.

[tremorfireheart]

honestly ebay is an open market place. they have a street and allow several different people to set up shops in it. Those selling real second hand goods, or fakes and those meeting up with them. buyers should realize they are doing buisiness with another individual not ebay and should check up on this person's credentials. In the end the individuals selling such fakes(as the real thing) or stolen goods are the ones to be going after. Sure ebay is making money here. the money it's getting however is for the equivalent of distrubiting advertising. if you have a problem with the products then go after them, but you don't go after the tv station for airing the comercial. you go after the person who made the ad.

[4wight]

You are being incredibly naive. The things being sold are FAKES. In case you didn't know counterfeiting things is stealing, it is a crime. It is the responsibility of, to use your metaphor, the owner of the marketplace, to ensure within reasonable bounds that illegal or criminal activity is not being conducted on his premises. Ebay is incredibly cavalier in its responsibilities over possible frudulent activity on its site. I wish it had been fined more so that it would open up and become more responsive to the genuine people who use it.

[Penguinisto]

@4wight: Err, so what? If you're dumb enough to buy a fake brand-name off of eBay, that's your problem, not mine (esp. considering that the site goes out of its way to shout 'caveat emptor!' in the first place).

[aka_tripleB]

@Penguinisto: It's not illegal to buy counterfeit goods, and most of the time the buyer is perfectly aware that it is counterfeit. But whether or not the buyer knows, it is ILLEGAL to SELL counterfeit goods. And that is what this crack down was about, people selling counterfeit goods.

[Renegade Knight]

That's utterly stupid. eBay provides a marketplace. Nothing more. Using the same logic by which eBay just lost the case, eBay could sue the Luxery goods makers for not being strict enough about policing counterfit goods thereby allowing them to be sold on eBay.

The logic is akin to Suing France itself for the same thing since they make tax the profit on real and fake goods as well.

[humanssssss]

Ebay should block all Louis Vouton from France altogether. Done. If there's not much business done in France, don't stay there.

The French are socialistic pigs. They don't make any products that are productive to society, just a bunch of expensive fashion crap that people rich people buy.

[xtexman]

I think what tremorfireheart and Renegade Knight are fogetting is that in addition to a fee for posting an item, eBay takes a cut from every sale. This involves them directly in the sale, unlike the examples of a street with vendors or a TV station showing a commercial. They open themselves up for litigation and in this case, lost.

Not that I think LVMH needed to sue, someone who buys a knock-off luxury item online probably isn't in the market for a real one.

[sensi2]

The usual moronic francophobic comments that follow some "zut alors!" ridiculous post from so-called journalists, yeah we are on CNET. FYI 90% of "LVMH products" sold over Ebay are fakes, and Ebay is taking with a smile its commission on the traffic. That some people see nothing wrong with that and wrap themselves in their flag and primitive nationalism is just ludicrous and pathetic. Yeah just turn LVMH products off Ebay, that is exactly what they are asking from the godfather of counterfeiters, who of course disagree.

@ humanssssss
Your ignorance must be bliss.

[sensi2]

Oh, BTW eBay is awaiting the decision on a case brought by Tiffany's for the same reasons. ::rollingeyes::