Despite the €1bn fine handed to Intel by the European Commission, it wasn’t all bad news for US tech companies in Europe on Wednesday. Ebay won a lawsuit in the French courts over sales of fake L’Oréal perfume on its auction site. A court specialised in trademark law ruled that Ebay was merely a host site for the sales of counterfeit goods and not a party to their sale. It also said Ebay, which has a $10m a year budget for fighting online crime, was doing all it could to combat fakes.
It is the first legal victory in France for Ebay, which has in the past been ordered to pay compensation to Hermes and LVMH for sales of counterfeit products. In those cases Ebay was seen as more than just a host site for the sellers of the fake goods and therefore partially responsible. Ebay was ordered to pay nearly €40m to LVMH. L’Oréal was asking for €3.5m in compensation. Instead, Ebay and L’Oréal will now have to devise a joint system to combat counterfeiting, which will likely work out much cheaper.
More important, however, is the legal precedent this sets. Courts in other European countries are not obliged to follow the French example. But the French courts are seen as the strictest in Europe on counterfeiting and if eBay is able to satisfy them, it does send a message that the company is possibly doing enough to fight the fakes.
