Paris Court of Appeals Upholds Decision to Keep LV, Dior off eBay
Un-be-freaking-leavable…
Like I’ve said before… Louis Vuitton is well within its rights to do what it needs to do to get the counterfeits out of here. And even, to perhaps seek sanctions for past gross negligence… But this is going too far- big time.
Basically, today the Court of Appeals upheld a June 30 ruling that has ordered eBay to stop allowing the listing of any Christian Dior, Kenzo Parfums, Guerlain and Parfums Givenchy fragrances and cosmetics on eBay France.
eBay’s is already appealing the original $63.2 million ruling on negligence in allowing Louis Vuitton counterfeits on the site… But they were trying to get an emergency injunctive order after a review of the part that forbid them from allowing sellers to list authentic LVMH perfumes (that were sold outside of Louis Vuitton’s regular, authorized distribution channels) on the site- or face the unreal DAILY fine of 50,000 euros, or $79,000.
So, the appeals court basically upheld the fine and in fact- upped the ante- ordering eBay to pay an additional $15,736!
Wow. I mean, what would it do to the value of any luxury good- if it no longer had resale value? A lot of people buy cars, art, jewelry (and handbags) with their inherent resale value- and even, investment value in mind. Unreal.
Again… I’m on the egde of my seat to find out what a US Court will say in a similar situation (Tiffany & Co. v. eBay). Any day now…
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Tags: Dior, eBay, lawsuit, Litigation, Louis Vuitton, Paris, Tiffany & Co.
July 11th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
WOW! Scary….
July 12th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Uh…. yea. I gotta say, it freaks me out– as you can imagine
Sarah
July 17th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
The lawsuit got my feathers riled…. I’m one of the many authentic LV sellers currently on restriction of selling LV on Ebay, and I have 100% positive feedback, great comments, and I have a good standing. It’s crazy. If you buy LV from a boutique, isn’t it yours at that point? If it’s yours you should be able to do what you want with it, including reselling it. I hope Ebay wins their appeal.
July 18th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Sorry Laurie… it’s not right. The courts in France are much more friendly to this type of heavy handed response to selling out of distribution channels. In the US, we have what is called “First Sale” doctrine- which originally applied to copyrights on books, electronic media etc. but now works for the resale of any authentic goods. Basically- you bought it- you have the right to resell it (or destroy it) without needing the approval of the copyright owner.
You’ll get back on soon. eBay makes you jump through hoops for sure- but once they realize that you are legit (quite frankly) they want your money! They’ll let you back on. Still. It stinks to get the limitation.
Good luck and hope it’s lifted ASAP!
Sarah
October 19th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Sarah, thanks for your reply to my earlier reply. I am getting ready to try to list more LV (authentic, of course!) on Ebay. I am sure I will still be restricted to selling only one LV item every 30 days. This really stinks, as the holiday season is upon us. I recently had some rare vintage LV desktop items authenticated by an Ebay powerseller - this being after boutiques could not verify the authenticity because the items are so old! What confirmed it is seeing two of the same items being sold or had been sold on Mallerie’s web site for high $$. I can only hope that the people Ebay uses to review auctions and confirm authenticity are true experts of LV items, and that includes the very old and rare items.