Is eBay Winning the War Against Counterfeits?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
May 13th 2009 at 11:02PM

EBay, the world's largest Internet auctioneer, is jubilant after winning one of their many lawsuits regarding counterfeit products. A French court found that eBay was not liable for counterfeit L'Oreal perfumes sold on its website. The Parisian court ruled that eBay had met its obligantion to prevent sales of fake goods. The victory is a bit of a surprise considering earlier losses in France to Hermes and LVMH in similar cases however eBay did recently win against watchmaker Rolex.

After the ruling eBay issued a press release saying in part that " We are delighted that eBay's meaningful efforts to fight counterfeits online have been recognized by the court, as has our status as an internet-hosting provider. Today, 99% of all items listed on eBay have no suspicion of counterfeits." That''s a pretty bold claim. The auction site does have a team of around 2,000 people in place to fight counterfeit products on the site but it seems a bit soon to declare a total victory in the war against counterfeits.

Tags: ebay, lawsuit, loreal

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

just me May 14th 2009 11:23AM

Well, don't get me started on eBay. My last purchase was a disappointment--the quality of the product was less than described but not worth the return and hassle of return. But I wanted to leave a negative comment about the seller because one, the item was slow to ship and two, it was less than expected. I tried at least five times to leave a negative comment but the negative comment page would 'freeze' when it was ready for a final 'submit'. Nothing would happen. I have left favorable responses in the past, so I know my two computers work properly. The negative one doesn't work. I tried to contact eBay about the issue, they tried to pass me off to PayPal. Finally I found a way to bring the issue to eBay's attention and they sent back a near-to-impossible process for leaving a negative comment. Needless to say, I never was able to leave a comment and have sworn off shopping at eBay.

shieldsbrown May 15th 2009 11:48AM

Interesting post.

"...Today, 99% of all items listed on eBay have no suspicion of counterfeits." Yah right.

"...team of around 2,000 people in place to fight counterfeit products..." This sounds very impressive, but let's not be credulous. Their statement suggests these are full-time positions. Suppose each person made, oh, $40k a year. Multiplied by 2,000 = $80,000,000 a year spent on anti-counterfeit activity. Yah, right.

However, having said that, I don't see at all why it should be eBay's responsibility to screen for counterfeits. Historically that has always been the copyright holder's job: if you hold a copyright or patent, and you see that it's been violated, you go after the violator, at your own expense, to protect your own business. Ebay offers a platform for sales. Period. Outfits like LMVH and Hermes are clearly trying to make the distributor do their work for them.