6 months ago, LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy) filed a case in the Paris Court against eBay for selling fake Louis Vuitton goods on the world famous auction site.

LVMH has various sister brands that include Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Givenchy, Dom Perignon and Moet & Chandon to name a few.

LVMH won the case and the courts ordered eBay to pay 19.28 million euro to LVMH, 17.3 million euro to Christian Dior Couture and an additional 3.25 million euro to various perfume brands (Christian Dior, Kenzo, Givenchy and Guerlian).

The multi-million dollar luxury lifestyle company won on the basis that eBay failed to make any attempts to prevent the sale of the counterfeit items. Also, eBay is not an authorised site to sell and advertise the LVMH branded products.

Not long ago, eBay also had to pay Hermes 20,000 euros in damages for selling its counterfeit goods (3 Hermes handbags of which 2 were fake – all sold for 3000 euros). The case against Hermes was bought forward by the traditional auctioneers in France who claim that eBay encourage trade of pirated and stolen items.

eBay has 84 million active users and 39 markets worldwide and in 2007 they recorded sale of all items on its auction platform to a total of $US60 billion.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/ebay-cops-hefty-penalty/2008/07/01/1214677979204.html