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Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, and other trademark lawsuits against EBAY
 

Who is responsible for the policing of counterfeit products on eBay? If you think that's an interesting question and you're here in Gotham, hightail it down to Judge Richard Sullivan's courtroom in the Southern District where a bench trial gets underway today pitting Tiffany against the online auctioneer. Legal experts say a win for Tiffany

Law Blog - WSJ.com : Law Blog Trademark Trial Of the Day: Tiffany v. eBay

I think eBay will win...eBay can show due dilligance on their part with their Vero program etc but if Tiffany did not report the ⊗⊗⊗⊗ then the problem lies with Tiffany. There is but so much eBay can do unless Tiffany asks them to ban their products altogether or somone snitches on ⊗⊗⊗⊗ sellers.

Louis Vutton, Tiffany, and other trademark lawsuits against EBAY
 

Bloomberg.com: U.S.


Also says that "In addition to the $20 million, or 0.33 percent of annual revenue, that EBay says it spends on enforcement, the world's largest online auctioneer said it conducts computer searches for suspect items and assigns 250 of its 16,000 employees to prevent infringement."

I don't get it....you can go to new york and buy a rolex on the street for $50. Obviously you know it's not real. Duh!!! neither are the ones on eBay for that price! LOL How is that hurting rolex? The people that buy those couldn't afford a real one and were never a potential customer to begin with! So how do they claim that's costing them money?

The makers of the ⊗⊗⊗⊗ watches don't have a license to legally reproduce it as a Rolex even as a knock-off. Rolex-like. Or call it Rollex, Rolik. Which I've seen on the streets of ol' wicked New York.

A few months ago I was studying vintage-style classic Fender and Gibson guitars, made in china, open bid $0.99.

Im still baffled how some sellers operate under the radar and others get the boot for VERO items.

But, a business man can open a fried chicken joint and called it Kennedy Fried Chicken, or Ken's Lucky Fried Chicken.

I don't think Tiffany going to win, to many politics involved..fact remains ebay brings way to much money in the economy for them to just stop them. But if Tiffany does win, that will be the end of eBay as we know it.

HI:
They are using 250 of their LP people, well...
theres alot more than 250 of us... :))

Louis Vutton, Tiffany, and other trademark lawsuits against EBAY
 

lol
that should bite them in the a**
they also had to pay christian dior 25.7 million
and louis vuitton 30.40 million

so LV did not get all the money.

LV and Dior is the same company, though. Just different brands. I still see 3000+ LV listings on eBay, though.

yea,
out of 3000
how many do you think are ⊗⊗⊗⊗?

99.9% percent, despite what sellers may claim.

I have to be honest here, I can't spot a ⊗⊗⊗⊗ from an original. My wife has originals and ⊗⊗⊗⊗ and I can't tell them apart. I probably could if I cared about women's handbags, but I don't :D And I couldn't tell you on eBay which one is ⊗⊗⊗⊗ or not, but I would guess there's quite a few ⊗⊗⊗⊗ ones.

yeh, just heard this on the radio. Ooooh slowly going down, down down!!

LoL, crazy

That's an understatement, there's as much ⊗⊗⊗⊗ on ebay as there is sushi in Japan. :D

lol

The funny thing is this scenario:

- A seller from Hong Kong lists a genuine LV bag.
- A seller from the US lists a ⊗⊗⊗⊗ LV bag.

Who do you think gets suspended? When I'm in Hong Kong, I see more foreigners walking around with huge travel bags full of counterfeits than any Chinese citizen. And not just Americans, but Europeans and Africans alike. But anyone buying a LV bag from a US seller thinks he's getting the real thing.

So where are they actually manufactured? Is it Paris? or is that where the designers are from?

I dont feel the least bit sorry for them.

Agreed, it was about time they were really told about the counterfeiting issue. A large chunk of their business model is based around allowing counterfiets to be sold. They would be a lot smaller, and less known for their "value" if all of the c/f items were removed.

There again, it's fairly hard to police.

Actually it's not hard to police, just don't allow anything with a brand name to be auctioned off on ebay and they've fixed the problem.

With so much ⊗⊗⊗⊗ LVs going around, I'm surprised people still want one. When I see one, I automatically assume its ⊗⊗⊗⊗. Yesterday I was at Wal-Mart and this trashy girl had a LV. I just laughed. The name of Louis Vuitton is ruined and completely worthless now, except for those ghetto mamas who want one.

I'm glad ebay got sued. It gives me some small satisfaction.

^^^
Same

Although 60M for ebay is pocket change. Considering that they earn Billions annually, 60M is not much.

Yeah I believe this is a typical example of karma! But because ebay is a huge company they just get away with it, upsets me that a sole trader gets banged up for selling a ⊗⊗⊗⊗ because he wants to make a little money on the side however a company such as ebay gets away with it and knows EXACTLY they are ⊗⊗⊗⊗ on there service! It just seems there is two sets of rules 1 rule for ebay and another rule for joe blog!

Louis Vutton, Tiffany, and other trademark lawsuits against EBAY
 

I like to repeat things that have already been posted, because I'm not very adept at using the search function. So anyway, here goes:

Ebay ordered to pay $61 million by a French Court for selling counterfeit Louis Vuitton brand. Read this Link from the NYtimes

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/te...l?ref=business

Here is the entire articles in case you dont' want to register with the NYtimes. Good Statistics: last year Ebay suspended 50,000 sellers and blocked 40,000 previously suspended sellers from returning to the service.
---------------------------------------------

EBay Ordered to Pay $61 Million in Sale of Counterfeit Goods

By DOREEN CARVAJAL (the NYTIMES)
Published: July 1, 2008
PARIS — EBay said it would appeal a French court’s order that it pay 38.6 million euros ($60.8 million) in damages to the French luxury goods company LVMH, the latest round in a long-running legal battle over the sale of counterfeit goods on the Internet.

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Antoine Antoniol/Bloomberg News
Pierre Gode, an LVMH adviser, outside of court.

Related
Tiffany and eBay in Fight Over ⊗⊗⊗⊗ (November 27, 2007)
Times Topics: eBayLVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, a maker of high-end goods and fashion and luxury products, successfully challenged eBay for a second time in the French court, arguing that 90 percent of the Louis Vuitton bags and Dior perfumes sold on eBay are ⊗⊗⊗⊗.

The court ruled Monday that eBay, which earns a commission on the sales, was not doing enough to stamp out counterfeit sales. The decision, while costly, is unlikely to have a drastic effect on the way eBay conducts business because it has already made changes to police its site for counterfeit goods. As eBay moves to more fixed-price marketplaces, it wants access to brand-name products for the cachet and the revenue those brands can bring.

EBay said in a brief statement issued after the decision that the case went beyond counterfeiting to include manufacturers proscribing the territories in which its products could be sold.

“When counterfeits appear on our site we take them down swiftly, and today’s ruling is not about our fight against counterfeiting,” eBay said. “It’s 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 will fight this ruling on their behalf.”

EBay has faced several legal challenges in France, where luxury goods companies are fiercely protective of their brands. In another recent case, a court ordered eBay to pay 20,000 euros to Hermès International in Paris for not properly vetting the sale of handbags.

That court concluded that eBay was not doing enough to combat counterfeit sales and should be forcing sellers to post more product information to guarantee authenticity.

For the first decade of its existence, eBay tried to avoid the counterfeiting problem, asking companies to monitor auctions of their products and send them notices on items they thought were fraudulent. That frustrated rights-holders, who had to spend time and money scouring the site, particularly when counterfeiting exploded after the company expanded to China in 2004.

A result was lawsuits. In 2004, Tiffany & Company fired the first salvo, suing eBay in New York after concluding that 83 percent of its products sold on the auction site were counterfeit. The outcome of that trial is still pending.

In January 2007, after being sued again in Paris by Moët Hennessy over Louis Vuitton handbags, eBay changed course on counterfeiting. Under the rules introduced then, eBay sellers in a certain number of critical categories, like luxury goods and clothing, were limited on the number of items they could sell and could not hold the shorter one-day auctions, a favorite of swindlers who hope to take their money and disappear. EBay also introduced geographical restrictions, preventing sellers in China and Hong Kong, for example, from listing those items at all.

EBay also began delaying some listings from being published to the site to give its employees time to review the items. That tactic has ended up aggravating many honest sellers, who complain the delay cuts into their profits. EBay now says it has over 2,000 people worldwide to tackle counterfeiting and that 95 percent of fraudulent listings are removed before the auction ends. The company also said that last year it suspended about 50,000 sellers and blocked 40,000 previously suspended sellers from returning to the service.

Brad Stone contributed reporting from Boston.

I would say they deserve it...but at the end of the day the sellers are the one's who is gonna be punished! I wonder what they will do next.

Lots of people have reported new york times to google for cloaking for years and years, but google just lets them get away with it. They are usually #1 google result because of their cloaking, too.

But as for the topic...

Firstly, the companies state a figure about how many counterfits are sold on eBay. Fact is they don't know and have no proof. I don't know why eBay didn't make that clear in court.

How exactly is ebay actually supposed to keep counterfitters off its site aside from aggressively stalking and driving everyone off? If someone is an authorized dealer, you can have them put up papers saying their goods are legit, but that does no good for people who are dropshippers or people who got the item as a gift and are reselling it. And even if eBay verified the sellers, that's still hard to prove.

What can I say? When you have your own site, you make your own rules.

I said this on another thread, But, I am asking again Do you think Louis Vitton really loses money because "us poor folks" buy a ⊗⊗⊗⊗. Or put another way, I f there are no ⊗⊗⊗⊗ being sold ... will Louis Vitton make more money????
I guess I don`t get it. I just do not think that Jessica Simpson is going to buy a Louis Vitton bag off Ebay. Do you???

Well there could very well be some people who chose to buy it off ebay because of the price difference, not to mention they might have been fooled. Another thing to consider is LV's image, like the other member mentioned, most people have ⊗⊗⊗⊗ LV. Their company image can be hurt by ⊗⊗⊗⊗.

Exactly my point, couldnt get it out like that mind lol :p

Well, in case they care.... Their image is still good with Me!!!
{a big zero from the midwest}

lol :p Im in the middle, it has damaged it big time in my eyes, thats why im put off coz every time i see a lv whether it be real it reminds me of ⊗⊗⊗⊗ :/

Maybe real LV won't get hurt, since people who can't afford real ones, buy ⊗⊗⊗⊗ ones, and they weren't going to buy the real ones anyway.

But, maybe it has been hurt. Maybe people who can't afford to buy the real thing would have saved up their money to buy it eventually. If this is true, then LV has lost millions of potential sales.

When I saw a LV 8 years ago, I was in awe and impressed at the owner. Now since every one who drives a 1977 chevy has one, when I see one, I just assume its ⊗⊗⊗⊗ and it has the opposite effect with me. I'm not in awe, but I just laugh at them.

Great ! I so hope for more such law suits in the future.! I can't help praying this company looses so much money it goes down in the dumps....:) then they will start begging everyone to sell on there trash website

If eBay were to do this which would fix the problem they would seriously hurt their profits since 99.9% of everything sold on eBay is ⊗⊗⊗⊗ according to the article.

Honestly I think they're just tryna look like they're doing something. They know they can't stop counterfeits. Some counterfeit's are so good you can't tell them from the originals! Only way they do that is if you have to do some outrageous stuff to list brand item's like have a license or something. But then again eBay loses BIG profit.

eBay's reponse on their website to the whole lawsuit of eBay really underemphasizing how strict they are on VERO, made me realize.

You know, eBay really should have entered into court all the websites and ebay guides complaining on how eBay terms innocent people for no reason over VERO, how eBay doesn't verify rightsholders, how there's lots of ⊗⊗⊗⊗ VERO reports. If eBay did that, they probably would have won.

Aside from banning brand names, what else could ebay realistically do to stop counterfit goods? Did the VERO program not protect ebay at all?

Good point. I am wondering why iOffer hasn't been sued yet. I would venture to say that ioffer's listings are 70% counterfeit. So much so that it has developed a reputation as the number 1 source online to get your ⊗⊗⊗⊗ stuff.