Vicarious Liability: French Court Slaps $63 Million Fine Against eBay for Users' Sins
Posted 06/30/08 at 10:07:05 PM by Pulkit Chandna
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Vicarious liability is a legal principle that lays out rules for liability of one person for the acts of the other. But the most uncompromising version of this legal doctrine has surfaced in France, where a court ordered eBay to pay luxury goods group LVMH damages worth $63 million.
LVMH had alleged wrongdoing on eBay’s part as many counterfeit LVMH goods including those from brands like Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Givenchy were being sold through the website. But the court failed to understand that eBay is merely an online marketplace and can’t be held liable for the wrongful acts of its users, unless there is evidence to suggest collusion between the two. The court also deemed eBay liable for damages due to the sale of legitimate LVMH products which are only to be sold through authorized channels.
In a similar case in India, the MD of Baazee.com that later became eBay India was arrested in 2004 for selling pornographic content through his company website (Baazee), although it was actually a user who sold the porn clip. He still faces legal charges and is currently under trial, however, criminal charges against him have been countermanded.
eBay is going to challenge the ruling and will soon file an appeal against the order. “Today’s ruling is about an attempt by LVMH to protect uncompetitive commercial practices at the expense of consumer choice and the livelihood of law-abiding sellers that eBay empowers everyday,” said eBay’s spokesperson in a statement.
Image Credit: RaeA
France just has an
Submitted by damicatz on Tue, 07/01/2008 - 2:48pm
France just has an inferiority complex. After all, they haven't actually won a single war yet.
French courts do not have jurisdiction over eBay. I suggest eBay do the following :
1.Refuse to give a single cent regarding this so called "judgement" made by the French "court".
2.Block all French IPs from eBay.
3.Ban the selling of any French products.
Submitted by tallshipsgo on Tue, 07/01/2008 - 7:50am
I’m tired of EU member states (and the EU’s EC) abuse of power. In this case the use of power to shake down US business. Again. It’s blackmail pure and simple. France is whining (again) so some business here is forced to pay up? Sickening. As noted in a previous post: you don’t hold a newspaper responsible for printing a classified someone paid to have printed. I also cannot see clear to holding eBay culpable for the misdeeds of sellers.
Do you have any idea what kind of fees they’d have to charge so that they could employ enough people to scan every new post? I don’t but given that there are an estimated five million new items posted daily on eBay I’m betting the fee hike would be steep. I don’t disagree that the fees eBay and PayPal (By the way: closely wed the business to PayPal? PayPal IS an eBay business.) charge are a tad onerous, but I see it simply as: don’t use eBay. Use Craigslist – no fees to sell stuff.
its not the euro hate
Submitted by whisp on Tue, 07/01/2008 - 9:17am
To be honest I don't think it has anything to do with the fact that the business in question is American. It's more confusion on the part of the EU as stated in the article in regard to digital laws (seems always to be the case, can u say bit torrent?)
since when is paypal owned by ebay as u state?
We plan for Tomorrow, but we Live for Today
Submitted by tallshipsgo on Tue, 07/01/2008 - 10:13am
I'm not sure about that, you could be right you could be right I suppose. It seems awfully strange that every time the EC wants to be pissy about something or an EU member state needs money they try tapping US companies for cash. Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, etc. Deep pockets ripe for the picking.
eBay bought paypal in, oh, 2002 or so. They dumped billpay and scooped up paypal.
Submitted by rghylton on Tue, 07/01/2008 - 5:34am
It seems eBay is getting its comeuppence. They have closely wed their business model with Paypal, hurting buyers and sellers alike, and have created significantly less friendly seller policies.
That's a whole other can of worms
Submitted by Talcum X on Tue, 07/01/2008 - 7:07am
I do agree on that matter. The whole paypal, fee this, fee that, all in the name of conveniance. After both sides (ebay, paypal) gets their piece after piece of the sales pie, there isnt as much as you though you sold it for.
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Every morning is the dawn of a new error.
Submitted by Talcum X on Tue, 07/01/2008 - 4:43am
This has been going on for a while. We dont get angry at the newspaper for someone elses For Sale adds do we? It always had and always will be, buyer beware. Know what your looking for before you shop. And there is always a risk when buying online. Not everyone is honest or has the same standards as you do in how they describe an item.
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Every morning is the dawn of a new error.
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