eBay's latestFrench court victoryagainst L'Oréal
will not end the online auction firm's ongoing battle with luxury
brand owners over the sale of counterfeit goods, say
lawyers.
The auction firm has faced
legal challenges by top brands, including
Tiffany's, Hermès and L'Oréal, which have accused eBay of
failing to stop the sale of counterfeit goods through its site.
In the latest challenge by L'Oréal, Paris's Tribunal de Grande
Instance ruled that eBay was not liable and ordered the two
companies to collaborate on combating the problem.
"This round may have gone to eBay, but this will not be the end
of the long-running battle with brand owners," said Dai Davis,
partner at law firm Brooke North.
According to Davis, eBay is still likely to face challenges from
luxury brand owners under European consumer protection laws
introduced last year.
"It all comes down to statistics, so L'Oréal's inability to
prove a sufficient proportion of L'Oréal branded goods sold on eBay
are fake is confined to this case," he said.
Although this particular court was satisfied that eBay is doing
enough to keep fake goods off its site, other courts may not agree,
said Davis.
eBay claims to be spending $10m a year to
keep fake goods off its site, but this should be much greater,
according to Davis.
"By eBay's own admission, 10% of branded goods sold through its
site are fake, so it should be spending at least 10% of its revenue
on countering the problem," he said.