Ebay gets slammed
Ebay got slammed 61 million dollars by a french court for allowing Ebay to sell counterfeit goods , like Louis Vitton fake bags etc
This should make ebay more careful now when they accept listing for fake merchandise . Here is the article
LVMH wins compensation from eBay in counterfeit case

Reuters
Monday, 30 June 2008



A French court ordered eBay to pay ?38.6m (£30.6m) to luxury goods group LVMH for allowing the sale of fake merchandise, in a ruling immediately appealed by the online auction website.

Today's decision, a month after eBay was ordered by another French court to pay handbag maker Hermes ?20,000 for allowing the sale of counterfeits, is the latest episode in a long fight between luxury goods makers and the world's biggest online auctioneer.

"We will fight all these decisions in the name of eBay users, and we have decided to appeal," eBay said in a statement.

"If counterfeit goods are put up for sale on our site, we scrap them as soon as possible," it said.

EBay accused LVMH of having a hidden agenda.

"Today's decisions are not about fighting counterfeiting. It's about LVMH's desire to protect commercial practices that exclude all competition," it said.

LVMH claimed damages of about ?50m because it said eBay's French arm had not done enough to prevent sales of counterfeit items.

Today's ruling decided separate cases by several different LVMH brands - LVMH and Dior Couture as well as perfume brands Dior, Guerlain, Givenchy and Kenzo.

Ebay has been sued by jewellers Tiffany , which accused it last year of turning a blind eye to sales of counterfeits, and faces action from L'Oreal over the sale of perfumes on the site.

The issue, which potentially has important implications for online commerce, has particular resonance in France which has some of the world's biggest luxury goods makers and which has been at the forefront of efforts to fight counterfeit goods.

Luxury goods groups accuse eBay, which earns a commission on sales made through its site, of facilitating forgeries and counterfeits by providing a marketplace for vendors who knowingly sell fake items.

EBay says it has stepped up efforts to fight counterfeits through programmes that analyse suspicious sales patterns by particular vendors as well as VeRO, or verified rights owners, a system that helps block sales of counterfeits.

But the group, which saw around $60bn worth of goods sold across its platforms last year, says that as a host for independent vendors, it has only a limited responsibility and capacity to regulate what is sold on its site. The conseil des ventes, the group that represents mainstream French auctioneers, has also sued eBay, which it accuses of trying to circumvent laws regulating the auction sector by claiming to be a broker.

i can still go to....
canal st.

I had heard about that earlie...
I had heard about that earlier today, and was so jazzed to learn that eBay was hit with a $61 million dollar fine (which they are planning to appeal of course). I had written a guide about fakes on eBay that was getting fairly popular, but this was about fake iPods with fake (4MB+) memory. I wrote all about how eBay turns a blind eye to all the outright theives that are selling not just fake iPods (pretending they are genuine Apple players) but iPod clones with completely bogus memory (fake memory chips that are less than advertised). I not only blasted eBay for making millions of dollars on the counterfeit clones, but I named names of bad sellers that were known to be selling counterfeit "chipod" clones. Although a lot of people wrote to me thanking me for the heads up (which means it helped the eBay community protect itself), guess what, eBay took my guide down, surprise, surprise.... (because they dont give a f**k about the eBay community of "buyers", only the eBay community of "sellers", and "PowerSellers" at that (who were the primary vendors of ipod clones with counterfeit memory chips), that put money in their pockets).

i love ebay i dont lik...
i love ebay i dont like some of there policies
but I have bought some of the finest mid century furniture
over the last 4 years and would never have had a opportunity to acquire such fabulous cone chairs from Verner Panton, 2 swan chairs, 1 egg chair from Arne Jacobsen , Harvey probber sofa,100s of eames bucket chairs,2 barcelona chairs, arco lamp,Nelson bench, Le Corbusia chairs, Florance Knoll tables, all original stuff, some great shape some had to be recovered and of course at least 50 Nelson clocks, from Howard miller, so i can not knock ebay they have been good to me.
I did buy a Louis Vetton bag for my daughter i thought that it was real cause it cost me 350.00 and it turned out to be a fake, so i got stung, it happens but i did great on all the furniture,

Lucifer...if another eBay seller copied your ad,
how is eBay to blame? Seems to me you should be p*ssed at the seller, not eBay.

eBay certainly is getting a bad rap. 95% of my experiences are swell.

You get what is comming to you.
Ebay 10 years go was a fantastice resource where genuine sellers could source and off load stock.
The prices were acceptable and the terms were easy to follow.

The as greed got the better of ebay it realised that there was money to be made in every deal going on also surrounding it.

therfore it became concerned about loosing out on potential earnings as all corporate identities do.

The rules became more difficult to follow and penalties were swift to be administered.

when it got so focused on making money it did not care who was selling what or from where as long as IT was the medium. There were still good deals to be had and opportunities to be gained but IT had IT's fingers in all the charges.

Charge for selling + paypal additional charges
Charge for buying + again paypal charges
charge for paypal + more charges
Charge for layouts
charge for added pictures
charge charge charge in such a haste that very little GENUINE concern was shown for who or what got trampled in the endless persuit of charges and market dominance.

So ebay / IT has been the cause of its own penalty and will have no problem in paying the fine( maybe even add a charge for that from paypal if they are really sly) because what they have made of all sellers has more than made up for and covered their fine.

The only persons in all of this who really fucked ebay was and still are laughing all the way to the bank SKYPE!

Danish Janus Friis og swedish Niklas Zennström sold Skype to eBay for 2,6 billion dollars i 2005.

Godt gået Janus og Niklas we danes rule!!

At the end of the day, the $6...
At the end of the day, the $65 mil. shouldn't hurt ebay too bad. Clearly they have obligations to both their sellers and the big companies that fear their items are being knocked off. Tough line to toe..........I think Ebay does a commendable job. Its easy to slam Ebay-to say they collect too much in fees-don't do enough to enforce trademarks, etc--but at the end of the day they provide a service that is (IMHO) amazing.

Fritz hansen
O just wonder when Fritz Hansen will drag their sorry ass through the courts again.

on a slightly different note this extract is from correspondance with a supplier in China who approached me to sell their copies and his response to my legal issues questions!


Hi Murphy

As this is a copy product how do you/ I stand legally if Fritz Hansen lawyers sue us for breach of copy right?

I look forward to your reply.

Simon

Dear simon

Yes, they are replicas.

As you are in UK, so you don?t have any problem to sell those replicas, of course you must let your customer know they are not original.

In UK, design is a kind of intelligent property right which being protected for 25 years, after that they are public domain, unlike most of countries in Europe they protect the copyright of design for 75 years. So it is legal to sell reproduction in UK, that is the reason why so many companies are selling those reproduction in uk at present.


At the same time, UK is the only country in Europe who can sell those reproductiona to other countries in Europe for private use, because you are the member of European union, so it is a big market.

Maybe you can talk to your lawyer to confirm that


Furniture Sourcing Corporation

A company you can trust from Asia

I LOVE THIS TAG LINE!!

Revenge of the little guy
BTM, in anticipation of your dire prediction, let's start an auction website called momandpopstrikeback.com and no one is allowed to sell on it if they have three employees or more.

I think one of the most enjoyable things about the "old" or "original" ebay is searching for the unique, funny, totally outrageous stuff that occasionally pops up. (Not unlike the gold-leafed chair on another thread!)

I must confess that I never even glance at the stuff from the "buy it now" guys, live auction sellers or ebay store stuff. Where's the fun in that? I'm a "thrill of the hunt" kind of person.

Don't worry Barry, I'll be there bidding against you....
In fact, I'll be bidding on everything that looks even remotely interesting to me. Because now that the sellers can't leave negative feedback on me, I won't have to worry about following through with payment for anything either. I'll just "impulse bid" on stuff, and decide later if I really want it or not.

This new system is so much better.

(note: read with sarcasm).