A French court has found eBay guilty of counterfeiting and fined the online auction site €80,000 (£72,000).
The fine is far less than LVMH Group, which controls brands including Dior, asked for when filing the suit. "eBay is satisfied that the court rebuked Parfums Christian Dior's request for €4 million in damages," the auction company said.
LVMH had charged eBay with brand counterfeiting for allowing keywords for some LVMH brands to appear in advertisements.
"This decision gives credence to the requests made by Parfums Christian Dior, Kenzo, Givenchy and Guerlain," LVMH said.
But the ruling, made by the Paris Tribunal de Grande Instance, is the opposite of a recent one made by a Belgium court, eBay said. In that case eBay won, on appeal, in a similar suit brought by Ralph Lauren, it said.
In addition to the fine, the tribunal forbids eBay from continuing the activity and will impose a €1,000 fine for each infringement, LVMH said. In addition, the tribunal will publish the rulings in three French or international newspapers and on the eBay.fr and eBay.com websites, LVMH said. The rulings have not yet appeared on eBay.com.
Comments
Kevscar said: About time e-bay were made responsibe for what they allow to be soldThey have ignored pirates and counterfeiters for too long as long as they paid their fees