Louis Vuitton and Dior have filed a $47 Million lawsuit against eBay over fake merchandise. The suit all alledges that as many as 9 out of every 10 auctions that feature Louis Vuitton, feature fake merchandise.
$47 million is not a huge hit for a company with worldwide sales at $45 Billion last year, but if other manufacturers follow suit, eBay to billions in sales.
This is not about the settlement money, it is about the lost revenues if all the fake merchandise is pulled from the site. I suspect that billions of dollars in fake merchandise is sold on eBay every year.
eBay claims that they do everything required of them by law to police the site and goes on to say that it is the company's responsibility to police it's own brand.
eBay certainly do know fakes and frauds are being sold as genuine. They certainly do profit from it. You can report these fakes and frauds until you're red, blue, and purple in the face, and eBay does NOTHING.
Perhaps if eBay would just start by banning the sale of "genuine designer" items by persons in China, the problem would decrease, but they won't do that. They want the Chinese market so badly they're willing to sacrifice anything for it, including credibility.
Posted by: bonni | September 22, 2006 7:33 AM | Permalink to Comment