As reported back in April (see New eBay Legal Development in the UK – Seller to be Fined up to £50,000 for Shill Bidding), an eBay seller in the UK, Paul Barrett, plead guilty to shill bidding his own auctions. Yesterday, the judge in the case ordered Barrett to pay £5,000 in fines and court costs and to do 250 hours of community service. [Read more…]
The latest in a series of interesting legal developments related to eBay in the past few years, breaking news today is the case of an eBay seller in the UK who faces up to £50,000 in fines for shill bidding his own auctions. The Daily Mail reports this is the first case in which someone is being fined for such activities. [Read more…]
Per a report from the AFP, an Austrian court has found eBay to be guilty of negligence in a case about a buyer who used the auction site to purchase gold from an eBay “Power Seller” dealer, which he never received. [Read more…]
eBay’s reputation as a marketplace for fraud continues to worsen, with high profile mainstream media stories about lawsuits over the sale of fake, counterfeit, and copyright-infringing goods. The latest example comes from a court case in the UK, regarding a “global network of criminals [that] duped eBay customers into buying millions of pounds worth of fake golf clubs“. [Read more…]
U.S. District Judge Peter C. Dorsey today sentenced a Connecticut man, who plead guilty to committing fraud on eBay, to one year and one day in prison. He also ordered that he pay over a quarter of a million dollars in restitution, perform 150 hours of community service, and have three years of supervised release, following the completion of his prison term. [Read more…]
In what is being called a landmark decision, a jury in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California this week found that two ISPs and their owner are liable for contributing to trademark and copyright infringement for hosting sites selling counterfeit Louis Vuitton merchandise. [Read more…]
As touched on in a related report two weeks ago (see French Court Orders eBay to Pay $61 Million for Sale of Counterfeit Goods), TIffany & Co. initiated a lawsuit against eBay with regard to the high number of counterfeit Tiffany goods being sold on the auction website. The U.S. District Court judge in New York ruled yesterday that eBay Inc. fulfilled its legal obligation and took adequate precautions to block the sale of counterfeit jewelry on its site. This marks a significant victory for eBay in battling luxury companies suing the auction giant for not effectively policing its e-commerce website for fraud. [Read more…]
A French court today ordered auction giant eBay to pay 38.6 million euros (about $61 million dollars) in damages to the French luxury goods company LVMH, maker of Louis Vuitton bags and Dior perfumes. This judgment was a huge setback for eBay in one of several legal battles over the sale of counterfeit goods through their auction service. [Read more…]