Why eBay Beats L’Oreal In UK Court Battle?
eBay has won a UK court battle against French cosmetics group L’Oreal, which had claimed the online marketplace was jointly liable for trademark infringements committed by its users.
The decision is the latest in a series of legal tussles between the two firms as luxury goods groups seek to crack down on the sale of counterfeit goods.
L’Oreal, which owns brands Lancôme and Yves Saint Laurent, lost a similar case in France last week, and is appealing against a defeat in Belgium.
However, it won two cases in Germany that involved fake perfumes and products without wrapping.
“This is an important judgment because it ensures that consumers can continue to buy genuine products at competitive prices on eBay,” said Richard Ambrose, eBay’s head of trust and safety.
“Following legal victories for eBay in the UK, US, France and Belgium, we reiterate again that cooperation and dialogue is what is needed, not litigation. Only by working together can we collectively address the issues that concern eBay, rights owners and consumers.”
L’Oreal noted in a statement that the court had “agreed with the view held from the outset by L’Oreal, that eBay could do more to prevent trademark infringement.”
It said the judge had referred other issues of law raised by the case to the European Court of Justice for further guidance, and that it “remains confident of a positive outcome.”
It’s strange: most fashion and luxurious brands are driven by innovation and trends, but so far about 90% of them have not embraced one of the largest trends called: the Internet yet.
However, finally some of them seem to have developed the guts to lower their Magazine and GRP budgets with 1-2%, in order to try some stuff online. Congratulations, you have just caught Noah’s last ark. Your target audience might have not forgotten about you, so you might still be able to refresh your brand…
Back to eBay, let our audience know why you feel eBay should be allowed or stopped to sell genuine branded products?
Or do you have an idea why fashion and luxurious brands are still so shy online?
Source: Reuters
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Well, I believe Fashion still have a very traditional approach. High Fashion for example, with dominating fashion cities like Paris, Milan and New York characterized itself by many off line activities, like fashion shows, print, etc.
But not all Fashion brands are shy. Take Italian based company http://www.yoox.com for example, with seven million unique visitors per month, one of Europe’s biggest (high) fashion web shops. But they do more, they even inspired luxury fashion brands like Armani, Valentino and Bally to start their own webshops.
So I believe not all fashion or luxury brands are shy online. But what I do believe that there’s a lack of interaction between these brands and their audience. Many brands have moved their traditional approach to online. Remarkable is that brand fans, for example Armani fans, are setting up fan pages in various social sites, where tuns of people are participating in. Many brands find it difficult to understand how to deal with this.
@ Laurens
Yoox is pretty great, I have ordered there with pleasure for over 7 years. And they have won etail prizes for many times.
But the fashion industry is built on trends. So why would they neglect on of the biggest trends called internet for so long?
What’s so difficult about understanding this trend and tapping in to it?
If all other sectors can…
Cheers
Igor