eBay and Tiffany Battle out!

[newweb]

Last year, Anna Conti fake paintings was
sold on eBay bearing someone name.

Now, fake Tiffany's products were sold
on eBay.

How can this happen?

Tiffany's had secretly bought 200 items
labelled as its own on eBay in 2004 and
found out that all items were fake!

Of course it was not eBay who sold the
counterfeits and argued that it was not
required by law to exercise control over
such items sold on its website.

Still Tiffany did not care since she noted
that eBay was raking in millions of dollars
in fees it charged for the sale of fake goods
thru its website.

Since then, 19,000 of Tiffany's fake products
were removed from its auction website and
the trial continues.

Other branded products like Gucci and Prada
are watching this trial closely and may be
monitoring eBay's auction site across the
globe.

So, who is at fault! It is eBay or the seller?

To me, anonimously, both are at risk!

eBay should have noticed the brand the
seller is selling and reported it to Tiffany.

Once Tiffany got to know, eBay can then
notify the seller accordingly and Tiffany
would then take action against the seller.

This way, mutual respect is achieved.

I understand that eBay had million
of new product each day and it is
hard to locate the original from the
fake. If care is taken to review each
seller product, esp. for branded ones,
all this wouldn't surface.

Secondly, eBay should informe the
seller if his/her intention to sell on
eBay, no fake products please or else
he/she will be banned.

[Queen Bee]

Of course it was not eBay who sold the
counterfeits and argued that it was not
required by law to exercise control over
such items sold on its website.

""If someone is knowingly facilitating a counterfeiter, they can be sued as contributors," said Thomas Morrison, a trademark expert at Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler.

Legally there seems to be no question that eBay must remove a known fake from its site. It regularly does so, acting on the word of the manufacturer of the goods in question. It also pursues recidivists, sometimes bringing court action. But it does not screen auctions for counterfeits, leaving that to manufacturers.

Trademark law bans auctioneers, flea market organizers and others from knowingly facilitating the sale of counterfeits. But there is little case law that bears on the specific issue of who should monitor the goods sold on Internet auction sales to learn whether they are counterfeits: eBay or brand name manufacturers." Quote from article on Law.com

I think one of the major problems is Tiffany's is forced into investing time and money into shutting down these fraudelent sellers that they would otherwise not have to deal with, while eBay offers to list the auctions, and even receives revenue from it (eBay is making money off of these purchases, while Tiffany's receives no benefit whatsoever). I'm sure that some of these sellers would find other ways to offer out their illegal products (Like at fleamarkets or physical auction houses), but I'm sure the number would greatly decrease-- Ebay is much more anonymous, and sellers can get away with a lot of things before they decide to finally high-tail it. I think eBay is starting to realize that they are more responsible then they initially declared, as they have already taken major action in reducing the amount of fake items sold over their on-line auctions.