French court will rule on eBay L'Oreal case in Spring

By staff reported

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags European union European commission Ebay

France’s ruling on the counterfeit case involving eBay and L’Oreal will be announced early next Spring.

The French court will be giving its judgement on the case, which involves the selling of counterfeit L’Oréal products on the online auction site, on March 10 2009, according to press reports.

L’Oreal asked the Paris court to appoint an expert to determine the actual value of lost revenue it had experienced as a result of the sale of fakes on eBay. The cosmetics giant told the court on Wednesday that it believed as many as 60 percent of the perfumes sold on eBay under its luxury brand names were fakes.

L'Oreal brands are 'copied'

"EBay offers personalized advice to vendors, free coaching on how to improve sales,"​ said Isabelle Leroux, a lawyer representing L'Oréal at Wednesday's hearing before the Tribunal and quoted by the Associated Press.

"L'Oreal's most valuable brands are copied for sale on the site and eBay knows it."

The cosmetics giant is accusing eBay of not taking enough action to stop the sale of fake products in five European countries, but it seems a European standpoint on the issue may be missing.

Belgium was the first country to come back with a decision, and back in August it dismissed claims that the website was not doing enough to stop counterfeit sales.

L'Oreal points to eCommerce Directive

L’Oréal was not in favour of the agreement, expressing ‘utmost surprise’ at the ruling and stating it would appeal the decision.

Indeed the company went further, saying the ruling did not agree with the recent interpretation of the eCommerce Directive.

“L'Oréal believes that this judgement by the court digresses from the interpretation of the eCommerce Directive provided in recent months by the European Commission,” ​said a L’Oreal spokesperson at the time of the ruling.

In contrast to the judgement in the Belgium case, this summer saw two wins for companies accusing eBay of not doing enough to fight against fakes.

In July eBay was ordered to pay €38m to LVMH for the sales of fake bags, clothes and perfumes, and in June Hermès was awarded €20,000 in damages.

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