eBay Triumphs in German Suit Over Fake Rolex Sales
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Ruling finds the auctioneer did enough to prevent such fraud
From Bloomberg:
eBay Inc., the world's largest online auctioneer, won a German court ruling in a case brought by Rolex Group over sales of counterfeit watches on eBay's Web site.
The decision on Feb. 24 in Dusseldorf found that Rolex couldn't show that any similar counterfeit goods were offered on eBay after the company had been alerted to the sales, Ulrich Egger, spokesman for the court, said in a phone interview today.
"eBay now uses a filter program to detect offerings that blatantly violate trademark rights," Egger said. "eBay doesn't have to review each item before it gets posted on its site, because that would jeopardize the whole business model."
eBay faces a hearing next month in London on similar claims by L'Oreal SA, the world's largest cosmetics maker. eBay has had mixed success in cases over counterfeits, winning last year against Tiffany & Co. in New York and L’Oreal in Brussels. It lost to LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA and Hermes International in France.
Rolex sued eBay in 2001 over counterfeits. The original ruling in Dusseldorf for EBay was overturned in part in 2007 by the Federal Court of Justice, Germany's highest tribunal in civil matters. The high court said while EBay couldn't be held liable for damages, it had to monitor its site to prevent fakes from being sold once it had become aware of the problem.
The case was sent back to Dusseldorf to review how eBay was alerted about the fakes and whether it took sufficient action. The judges ruled again for eBay.
Anette Haertling, a spokeswoman for Rolex in Frankfurt, declined to comment.
From Bloomberg:
eBay Inc., the world's largest online auctioneer, won a German court ruling in a case brought by Rolex Group over sales of counterfeit watches on eBay's Web site.
The decision on Feb. 24 in Dusseldorf found that Rolex couldn't show that any similar counterfeit goods were offered on eBay after the company had been alerted to the sales, Ulrich Egger, spokesman for the court, said in a phone interview today.
"eBay now uses a filter program to detect offerings that blatantly violate trademark rights," Egger said. "eBay doesn't have to review each item before it gets posted on its site, because that would jeopardize the whole business model."
eBay faces a hearing next month in London on similar claims by L'Oreal SA, the world's largest cosmetics maker. eBay has had mixed success in cases over counterfeits, winning last year against Tiffany & Co. in New York and L’Oreal in Brussels. It lost to LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA and Hermes International in France.
Rolex sued eBay in 2001 over counterfeits. The original ruling in Dusseldorf for EBay was overturned in part in 2007 by the Federal Court of Justice, Germany's highest tribunal in civil matters. The high court said while EBay couldn't be held liable for damages, it had to monitor its site to prevent fakes from being sold once it had become aware of the problem.
The case was sent back to Dusseldorf to review how eBay was alerted about the fakes and whether it took sufficient action. The judges ruled again for eBay.
Anette Haertling, a spokeswoman for Rolex in Frankfurt, declined to comment.
posted by Chris and Frank at 11:02 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment