Sale of fake goods on eBay: eBay must pay €38.532.000 in damages according to French Court

eBay is in trouble in France - A series of 3 decisions by the Paris Tribunal de Commerce are forcing eBay to pay astronomical sums to the victims of its negligence. The French court found that eBay was not acting as a simple intermediary and was therefore not able to hide behind the protection offered by the e-commerce directive. A full article will be published shortly on e-comlaw , but in the mean time, you can consult the BBC's news item.

Australia - eBay's payment policy under scrutiny

eBay in Australia is trying to introduce sole use of Paypal as a payment system on its site. the The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission is currently ivestigating the practice which may be contrary to competition law. For more on this see, ACCC proposes to revoke immunity for eBay's PayPal only policy

Time flies

Time just flies. It has been far too long since my last entry in this blog. I have now completed my research (well more or less), published a few articles and gave a number of conference papers. I inted to now start posting again... more regularly!

Microsoft is suing counterfeiters selling goods on eBay and other online auction sites.

Microsoft is launching lawsuits worldwide against counterfeiters selling on auction sites. Rather than holding the sites liable, Microsoft decided to work with them in order to gain the best co-operation. The company has launched a large offensive against piracy of its Windows operating system, with lawsuits in France, the USA, Germany, the UK, The Netherlands, Belgium, Korea, Poland, Argentina, etc. In total 50 lawsuits have been launched against offenders who are persisting in selling pirated software on eBay and other online auction sites despite earlier request to cease and desist from the illegal practice. Those lawsuits also come after Microsoft has been using the Vero Programme to take down some infringing materials.

See also for more on this story:
ZDNet (en francais)
Yahoo News
The Register

French lawsuit against eBay - eBay reacts

eBay is being sued in front of the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris to the tune of 37 millions in damages for its apathy in dealing with the sale of fake products on its site. eBay has now publicly reacted and explained via a press release that over 2000 employees were busy dealing with such issues and the Vero Programme was also in place to help TM owners and other IPRs owners deal with infringing materials. In addition, eBay has launched a campaing on its site aimed at informing users. For more on this story, see ZDNet.

eBay sellers on strike?

The online auction site faces the prospect of its UK customers going on strike this week over recent changes. The changes include raised fees for bulk sellers. The full story on ZDNet UK.

eBay in trouble over counterfeit merchandise on sale on its French site.

ZDNet reports (21 August 2006) that eBay and Yahoo France are being at the receiving end of the Union of Manufacturers' disatisfaction at the multiplication of sale of counterfeit products on those auction sites. Considering that the site have a share in the responsibility the Union has decided to complain and request damages to cover the loss to its members. The Union who counts members such as Nike, Louis Vuitton, L'Oreal or Microsoft is planning to formally complaint in September. This come after months of unsuccesful negotiations with ionline auction sites requiring that they exercise some control prior to the sales taking place and not when notified after the event.For coverage of the story in English, see The Register.

online auction sites used in rising counterfeit software trade

Matt Chapman, vnunet.com 22 Jun 2006 reports:

Software piracy rampant in the EU

Intellectual property crime such as counterfeiting and piracy is on the rise, and seizures at EU external borders have increased dramatically, according to a government report released today by The Patent Office. The study found that the internet has become a major avenue of trade for counterfeit sellers, particularly using online auction sites.