Ebay has been fined nearly £31m by a French court for not doing enough to
stop counterfeit goods being sold on its site.
But
the online auction site has said the legal wrangle is less about counterfeit
goods and more about manufacturers protecting their sales channels.
The online auction site has been ordered to pay more than £15m to Louis
Vuitton Malletier and more than £12m to Christian Dior Couture, both brands
owned by the LVMH group.
Ebay was ordered to block sales through its site of genuine bottles of
perfume made by Christian Dior, Guerlain, Givenchy and Kenzo – four LVMH brands.
In addition it was fined £2.5m for breaching selective distribution network
agreements. LVMH uses these agreements to control where and how the perfume is
sold.
The company is also waiting for a verdict in a similar lawsuit in the US
brought by Tiffany.
Although Ebay said it intended to appeal both rulings, if it loses it could
have huge implications for what can be legitimately sold on its site.
It said the French ruling was not so much about counterfeit goods but
introducing what it sees as unfair commercial practices. It pointed out that it
spends more than £10m annually and employs over 2,000 people on a daily basis to
combat counterfeit products.
In a statement Ebay said: “If counterfeits appear on our sites we take them
down swiftly, but [this] ruling is not about our fight against counterfeit; it
is about an attempt by LVMH to protect uncompetitive commercial practices at the
expense of consumer choice and the livelihood of law-abiding sellers that Ebay
empowers every day.
“We believe that the overreach manifests itself through an attempt to impose,
in France, a business model that restricts consumer choice through an
anti-competitive business practice.”
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