eBay has come out fighting
against yesterday's record
£30m fine for trading in counterfeit goods imposed by the
Tribunal de Commerce in Paris.
The fine, which eBay will appeal, was in relation to a suit by
LVMH, which owns 50 luxury
brands such as Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Donna Karan and Tag
Heuer. LVMH accused eBay of trading in at least 300,000 Dior items
and 150,000 Louis Vuitton items in 2006. eBay also lost an earlier
case brought by handbag maker Hermes.
Jenny Thomas, eBay's UK spokesman, said LVMH was trying to
stifle legitimate trade in second-hand and unwanted goods by
conflating it with trade in counterfeit products. "This is all
about controlling the secondary market," she said.
She said over 18,000 brand owners and individuals had joined
eBay's verified rights' owners scheme (Vero). But not LVMH. "We
have approached them several times but they have always refused,"
she said.
Vero members can ask eBay to remove any counterfeit items or
sites they believe are selling these goods. "In most cases we take
down the site at once and 90% within four hours, at any rate, well
before the expiry time," Thomas said.
She said last year eBay took down 2.2 million potentially
counterfeit listings and suspended 50,000 sellers suspected of
selling counterfeit goods.
She added that eBay returns listing fees to the seller. "We do
not want to be associated with making money from questionable
enterprises," she said.
eBay faces similar legal challenges in other jurisdictions from
other brand owners such as Tiffany's the jeweller and cosmetics
firm L'Oreal.
Thomas said eBay spends more than £10m a year to fight fraud. It
has a dedicated anti-fraud squad in Dublin, and uses internal and
external consultants to train police forces how to fight crime on
the auction site.
"Last year we trained 7,000 law enforcement officials and helped
in more than 66,000 investigations which led to the arrest or
conviction of over 500 individuals," Thomas said.
The
European Commission is currently looking to introduce
pan-European legislation that would give greater protection to
online consumers, especially those who require redress because they
are dissatisfied with the goods they receive.