L'Oréal loses out to eBay in fragrance counterfeiting case
Internet auction house eBay has been successful in an action in a Belgian court brought by L'Oréal over cases of alleged counterfeiting of perfume products.
Internet auction house eBay has been successful in an action in a Belgian court brought by L'Oréal over cases of alleged counterfeiting of perfume products.
L'Oréal filed a complaint against eBay in five European countries last September including Belgium. It accused eBay of not being sufficiently cooperative to prevent the sale of counterfeit Lancôme products. The Belgian commercial court has been the first to give a ruling and has said that eBay had no obligation to monitor systematically what was sold on its site. The court added that eBay had acted with diligence on receiving letters from L'Oréal. A spokesman for eBay said it had cooperated in withdrawing the products about which L'Oréal had complained.
L'Oréal has said it is "extremely surprised" by the judgement and intends to appeal. It will have to pay the €15,000 costs in the case.