A French court has fined eBay
The ruling is related to one of three lawsuits brought by LVMH, a company that controls brands including Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton and Givenchy. The suits charged eBay with unlawful marketing of perfume brands that included Christian Dior, Kenzo and Givenchy as well as the sale of counterfeit items on eBay.
In June, the Commercial Court of Paris ordered eBay to pay damages of
The court also issued an injunction ordering eBay to stop allowing the genuine products to be sold to French consumers and said it would issue a
The Monday ruling fines eBay for failing to comply with the injunction.
EBay says that it uses state-of-the-art filtering software to check the millions of listings it receives daily for products bearing the LVMH brands. Between July 2008 and July 2009, eBay blocked and removed more than 20,000 listings, it said.
EBay has appealed all three of the cases with hearings for the cases scheduled in May.
In a statement, eBay said it believes the higher courts will overturn the ruling. "The injunction is an abuse of 'selective distribution'. It effectively enforces restrictive distribution contracts, which is anti-competitive," Alex von Schirmeister, general manager of eBay in France, said in a statement.
LVMH lauded the court's decision. "Selective distribution ensures the security and quality of products for consumers. It generates numerous jobs and contributes to the ongoing worldwide success of European luxury goods brands," it said in a statement.