L’Oreal Takes Ebay To Court
Thursday, March 19th, 2009Ebay are the target of L’Oreal’s legal guns this week as the consumer powerhouse questions Ebay’s ability to provide a platform for reselling of their goods. brand image is a major concern for L’oreal as the items sold on Ebay could well be fake and harmful to users. Additionally, L’Oreal states that the items being traded on the site may have derived from stocks outside of the Europe trading area and will not come under the same controls. This issue particularly an issue for L’Oreal’s perfume shop section
These global companies are certainly no strangers, having met in court a number of times. L’oreal does not have a great track record against Ebay, with the later being victorious in most previous battles. A court case that was brought against Ebay in Belgium was won by the Internet trading site.
The online big player Ebay has come under fire from other companies previously regarding similar issues. Names such as Apple, Adidas and Rolex have also seen a problem with Ebay’s seemingly relaxed attitude to uncontrollable selling of goods and court action has been faced before by the interactive trading site.
Due to the fact that courts have issued different conclusions for other companies taking on Ebay on similar grounds, they face problems in not being able to cite any set guidelines. The approach that the courts take on contentions such as this, by judging each case on its unique characteristics will inhibit the creation of any standard procedure and will ensure that more cases of a similar nature will likely be brought against Ebay in future.
The French company L’Oreal are thought to be taking their case to London’s High Court and launching a trademark infringement appeal. Among the products that L’Oreal will cite are Lipstick, perfume samples, hair products and eye makeup. Ebay is predicted to argue a similar point as it has before and point out that it simply serves as an another route to market and can actually help companies boost their profits.