Ebay fined $80 million for not stopping fake goods.

Id rather ebay be taken down for ripping people off over paypal or something.

"They alleged that even auctions involving their legitimate perfumes were illegal, because only specialist dealers were permitted to sell them.

The court barred eBay from selling the four perfumes in future."


Hopefully this doesnt start a bunch of other companies trying to ban their items being sold on ebay.

 

I think this is just the opening gambit in a long, drawn-out legal action which is set to continue as many other manufacturers & designers are going to clearly jump on this! Other companies are already lined up! eBay will appeal without a moments hesitation! So, pull up a comfy chair folks this is set to continue for a long time yet!

The ramifications of this are potentially huge for eBay and other auction sites.

 

bullshit.

ebay is just a fleemarket, a place that people meet to contract on the sale of goods they legally OWN. Why should eBay be responsible for what each asshole brings to the table?Because eBay owns the table? Extending intellectual property rights to such things is a dangerous excercise, and I doubt the Eglish legal view would be the same. French Law always strikes me as odd in many respects - they seem to be more socialist than capitalist with their policies.

 

I think you mean 'protectionist', which I would agree they are!

 

Consumer protectionism is certainly a feature of socialist political views. Unfortunately this is an impediment in capitalistic markets, mainly because of the financial overhead and the loss of business chance it creates.

 

May I ask why you think it is a bad thing? Even if eBay were a market stall down my local marketplace, the trading standards officers would confiscate the material on display if found to be counterfeit irrespective of whomever the stall owner suggested owned the goods. eBay cannot hide behind the idea that they are merely a stall holder whilst also charging for a service. That is why this is happening in my view. They are taking a percentage share of the profit and therefore have a direct commercial link with the goods offered.

The legitimate manufacturers bought samples of their own goods from eBay sellers and found that the vast percentage of those items were counterfeit. Given that counterfeit goods damage commerce and commercial enterprise, plus add costs to customers I think that eBay should be held to task.

Clearly, not being a lawyer I am not so legally eloquent as yourself Barc0dio, but I personally feel that eBay are lax in many areas. This is just one of them. The French are protectionists to the core and good for them! If it reduces the damage to their home trade and economy then I am all for it as that somehow seems the best aspect of capitalism rather than socialism. Protect the market for legitimate goods, trade and growth.

 

Didn't the French sue Amazon for offering free shipping for books and thus putting local book shops in a difficult position? Whatever happened to this?

 

France has sued Yahoo for giving access to materials relating to Nazis and WWII. This is horrible.

My view remains a liberal one regarding the internet because the internet has no real applicable law. Jurisdiction can be anywhere.

To be vigilant is a 'smartening' procedure that occurs only after error. Consumers using the internet must, in my view, be more vigilant than when they visit their local pawn-shop because the internet is a)difficult to legally define, b) is much more forgiving when it comes to scam.

I have no issue with the decision per se, however I do have an issue when domestic and national laws try to be applied to the internet. It's the extension of this decision that frightens me. The fact that some gray materials such as dev kits etc won't be allowed to be sold under this blanket of intellectual property.

The Law doesn't always protect the "good" versus the "evil" side of things. The Law of intellectual property protects the right of controlling what leaves a company even when physical control is impossible or unimaginable. It's an artificial way to protect business interests and it's not like they re not making enough money already.

 

Solution: Cut off the internets to France then...

All joking aside, there is no way to make current laws work 100% of the time and intent for the internet, simply because you'll never get everyone to agree on intent and language of any such law. Trying to do so may end up with a Frankenstein-ish version of the US DMCA (figuratively speaking, of course but I hope you get the point).

 

Had no idea about that and wouldn't even understand what that had to do (if anything) with todays decisions as it must have come under some other law reglating to anti-racism or whatever! Ironic from the country that brought us Le Pen!

Agreed, however simply looking at it from the point-of-view of the manufacturer, rather than consumer, the Internet poses a great enough threat to them without just stepping aside to let auction sites (even if they no longer call themselves that... I noticed my final message when I bid on an item yesterday on eBay no longer said 'You have won', but 'You have just bought') spread fake goods far & wide.

Consumers need to know that what they obtain from 'reputable' sites is actually genuine. I think this is purely the crux of the issue. Manufacturers are simply saying 'If you are assisting in the sale of fake goods AND profiting from it, then you must stop'.

eBay advertise themselves as being a reputible organisation. They facilitate trade. They make money by 'introducing people' (as they say).

Dev kits and dev material are already pretty gray areas and often pulled by eBay.

I can't understand that view point? It's not the protection that is 'artificial', it's the goods! Hence the complaint.

Anyway, I am bowing out as I have a stinking headache. My view, the French and others have every right to protect what belongs to them. If eBay cannot police itself sufficiently or satisfy the courts that they are doing their utmost to stamp out blatant enfringements, then they should be fined imho! After all they are not talking about Mr. Smith and his 1 bottle of fake aftershave. They are going after the larger businesses that are more than likely using eBay for regular, sustained illegal activities.

 

At the end of the day they are trying to protect their brand from being sold at all on ebay even real items. Thats what i have a problem with. Also why not just put their money on finding the producers of the fake bags.

While in hong kong on a famous market road there must of been 20 shops with full colour printed catalogues (very high standard) with all the fake bags. I saw an american buying 200 bags for resale. I also know people who can afford them but buy fakes because the waiting list for the bags is just ridiculous!

 

bit OT but over here eBay is going head to head with our consumer price watchdog over the mandatory Paypal use for all auction. They were told not to go ahead with its plan but it looks like they will be going ahead as planned...

will be interesting how our govs will deal with them~

 

Ebay keep lying through their teeth about things, they keep claiming they are a marketplace and not an auction house, although if I hire a space at a car boot fair, I don't get someone come over and say "How much did you make? £1500? Well as well as the £10 space fee, we will require £75 for a final fee and £15 as a payment surcharge" ditto if I go to an auction house they don't say "Selling a Van Gogh? Sure only £20!". If Ebay changed to a listing fee only then they can claim to be a market place, but with a final fee then any definition of the English language would deem them an auction house.

Personally Ebay should be held accountable for what they sell, they are taking a nice cut from it for basically doing feck all, they have hugh profits so good on big business for suing the lying lazy gits for not taking an interest in what people are listing. I agree with Parris if someone sells something illegal or counterfeit in a market stall then they shouldn't be surprised if the police come around.

I hope the consumer watchdog in Australia and the Government slap down Ebay / Paypal for double dipping, it seems that most people do like to pay for goods via direct deposit and I can see why most people do. Costs nothing and is quick and painless.

 

Ebay must have made umpteen millions of pounds from the sale of fake GBA games alone. Now the DS is popular things might have changed a bit, but at one point it was really difficult to find genuine GBA games on ebay, easily 90% of the games listed were fakes, and really obvious fakes at that.
Ebay know perfectly well how much fakes are sold, they remove the occasional listing, like some 20 year old chinese pirate Megadrive game or two to make it look like they tackle fakes, but really they are happy to take the money from the sales of knock-offs. Ebay make billions of profit, can they honestly not afford to pay a few people to search out fakes and remove them, ebay suck!.

 

Because eBay makes money on every sale, not on the renting of a pitch at a market place. So they profit from each illegal sale. Probably twice, if you consider paypal.

 

Hopefully it does.

 

I hate when I go to buy a CD and I have to worry whether or not I'm going to end up with a bootleg, so I hope this does something.

 

Agreed. They are ultimately responsible for what is sold.

 

eBay is run by the biggest group of douchebags in silicon valley. They're only there cuz numbers arent red yet, but these are the guys that thought buying skype at an inflated price was a great idea even when there was hardly a plan to get the money back, specially when the only catch your service has is letting people make FREE phonecalls (ebay itself isnt free). Hey, I've an idea for a business, and is gonna be huge! give people free Tvs on the street! whats my business model? I dont know...

Now, while I agree that there should be more controls about whats being sold on ebay, seeing how vuitton got $40m off this company kinda breaks my balls.

LV itself is an exageration of the term "evil corporation": last february they sued the darfur aid campaign for illegal use of the brand.

Historical records show the Vuitton family even helped the nazi regime of france (vichy) to make some money out of it.

But the biggest irony of all is that most of LV products are made in sweatshop no different from where the counterfeited versions come from.