Lawsuits Against Ebay For Facilitating Sale Of Counterfeit Items

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French luxury conglomerate LVMH and ebay have kissed and made up, settling an 8-year legal battle over knock-offs sold on the U.S. auctioneer's website. ...

LVMH, which owns high-end brands like Louis Vuitton handbags, Tag Heuer watches and Dior perfumes, sued ebay in France in 2008, arguing that it allowed a vast trade in counterfeit goods. To hammer the point home, it said that the majority of its branded products listed on the online marketplace were, in fact fakes. Later that year, a French court ordered ebay to pay 38.6 million euros, saying the company hadn't done enough to prevent knock-offs from being sold on its site. That was followed by years of appeals and fines and other related suits.

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A lawsuit has been filed against ebay, PayPal and various ebay sellers for trademark infringement and violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) linked to the sale of fake products on ebay.com. The plaintiff, who has registered trademarks for various products including iPhone cases and iPhone watch cases, alleges that as many as 2,000 ebay sellers, including the sellers named as defendants in the lawsuit, are using its trademark to sell fake products. The lawsuit claims ebay and PayPal knowingly and deliberately facilitate and profit from the sale of counterfeit products.

...the plaintiff, Wimo Labs, has sent more than 5,000 notices of claimed infringement to ebay since 2013, requesting the auction site remove the fake products. Notwithstanding, the same or similar fake products continue to be listed on ebay.com. This despite the fake sellers using colors and materials in their products that the plaintiff does not use, and despite the fact that the plaintiff does not sell its products on ebay, nor does it allow its licensed sellers to do so.

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June 29, 2016, Los Angeles, CA - It's an age-old crime: stealing. But it's not about picking a pocket or holding up a bank. It's robbing people of their ideas, inventions, and creative expressions—what's called "intellectual property" -- everything from proprietary products and parts, to movies, music and software. It's the business of counterfeit and fake goods.

e-Commerce giant eBay® ( ebay) is no stranger to allegations of selling counterfeit goods and faces a "credibility crisis" for failing to adhere to its own policies, crack down on counterfeit goods listed on its website, altering feedback, and making it easy for counterfeiters, the world's largest criminal enterprise, to peddle $1.7 trillion in counterfeit goods to unsuspecting consumers.

Companies that facilitate criminal activity and benefit from the proceeds of dishonest actions which impact jobs, consumer safety and public trust create a public perception of deception and impunity. However, reputation damage is only a small part of the problem: counterfeiting costs US manufacturers over $250 billion, and US workers over 750,000 jobs.

ebay claims "You can't list replicas, fakes, counterfeits, or other illegal copies on ebay"

Nevertheless, The Counterfeit Report® received over 2,000 counterfeit products1 from ebay sellers, representing over 400,000 counterfeit items listed or sold to duped ebay consumers.
A Press Release identifying the particularly alarming sale of fake FBI, Police badges, and identification made-to-order on ebay was emailed to ebay CEO Devin Wenig. The email was viewed 302 times, yet six weeks later, the ebay listings remain. (continued...)