Gadgets and gizmos

Ebay (the real Ebay, not a fake one) has now been ordered to pay 38.6 million euros to LVMH, which is the parent company of Louis Vuitton. The damages have been awarded because of Ebay’s inefficiency in preventing fake Vuitton goods from being sold on their auction website. While it isn’t the first action of this type taken against Ebay, it’s highly likely that it will cause yet more court cases of a similar nature.

During the same hearing, Ebay were also forced to pay Christian Dior, Kenzo, Givenchy and Guerlain perfume companies 3.25 million euros for similar offences – although in those cases it was the unauthorised sale of products. Just last month, Hermes won 20,000 euros over similar allegations and it’s possible that now the flood gates have opened there will be no stopping the action from commencing.

LVMH had actually asked for 50 million euros, amid claims that in 2006 more than 90% of the Vuitton products for sale on Ebay were in actual fact replicas.

Ebay is expected to appeal the case, citing that it has numerous anti fake and anti replica measures in place. It’s a bit of a worrying situation, even for a site the size of Ebay, because there are sure to be other companies ready to follow suit and many will have similarly detailed portfolios to that of LVMH.