A French court on Monday ordered eBay, the online auction giant, to pay €38.6 million in damages to LVMH, the French luxury goods company, saying eBay had done too little to stop the sale of counterfeit goods over the Internet. The decision thrusts France, the home of many prominent luxury houses, further into the forefront in the battle against brand piracy.
Legal experts were surprised by the amount of damages awarded, the equivalent of $60.9 million, and said the ruling could have repercussions outside France, encouraging fashion brands to pursue new lawsuits against eBay or other Internet companies.
"It’s quite unusual," said Patrice de Candé, a lawyer specializing in intellectual property issues in Paris who represented LVMH in its effort to challenge the search engine Google for posting advertising of counterfeit LVMH products. "I’ve never seen such an amount of damages in French law in my 23-year career."
From its offices in Paris, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton cast its legal victory as an "important step in protecting brands and products from parasitic practices" and praised the court for "a precious contribution to protect creative works that are important to our national heritage.
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