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Jul 16, 2008 -- eBay facing $61 million judgment over bogus goods
eBay is currently facing lawsuits all over the globe for their role as an enabler for people selling counterfeit goods. Clark has long believed that eBay has a responsibility to guarantee that the merchandise on their site is the real deal. The company has seen a decline in growth, and Clark believes the question of their credibility may be part of the slowdown.
A French court now has hit eBay with a $61 million judgment. The court believes that bogus merchandise on the site -- much of it purporting to be from high-fashion labels -- affects the reputation of companies like Fendi, Louis Vuitton and others.
Meanwhile, Clark has a marketplace solution that he's long believed in. He feels eBay should require sellers to say "famous brand" instead of listing the actual brand name, or require sellers to have their wares independently verified as real before putting them up for sale. Legit sellers could then command higher prices.
Unfortunately, Clark won't be able to answer any questions submitted via commenting. If you have a question, please try posting it to our message boards.
I'm tardy to the party, but Kay hit the nail on the head!! The sellers are suffering from buying and selling on ebay.
selling on the internet
so how can we join in on the lawsuit?
Ebay practices
I am a Ebay seller and I listed a Chanel & Fendi and they shut me down and made me sign a sworn statement that I would never sell name brand items again . So I can't believe they are letting sellers sell the fakes.
eBay
"Let the buyer beware" as eBay is not the only place where you can get scammed. Now if eBay knows a particular Seller is a known Scammer they should, with good morale conscience, expose that Seller. eBay cannot be held personally responsible for every item that is sold from their site.
eBay facing $61 million judgment over bogus goods
If someone is willing to sell counterfeit merchandise, wouldn't they submit a counterfeit verification that their item is legitamte.
How many millions of transactions take place on eBay each day? And they're supposed to eyeball every 'designer' item before it's listed? Ridiculous. This is what feedback is for--only buy from sellers with massively positive feedback, and if an item seems to good to be true, it probably is. Common sense!
Ebay
Clark,
You wasted considerable time on this crying jag. Are TV stations, yellow pages, penny saver, etc. going to be held to this "mommy will protect you" attitude?
LVMH vs. Ebay
LVMH a.k.a. Luis Vitton, best known for expensive but ugly purses/Moet-Chandon Champagne/Hennessey booze, owns the historic perfume brands Guerlain and Dior, among others. Their bean-counters have reformulated these so that they are nearly unrecognizable, using cheaper ingredients, claiming that new EU regulations are the culprit. Lots of people buy the older formula perfumes on E-bay, and LVMH is trying to stop ANY of their brands from being sold there. Doesn't this sound like restraint-of-trade? What LVMH wants, at least in fragrance, is that it's "luxury" scents be sold only at the highest possible prices in the most expensive, LVMH-approved retail outlets, such as Saks. Is this Clark-smart? I think not!
eBay
Clark - the sellers on eBay are "consumers" of the eBay product. Right now the sellers are under some really unfair policies enacted by eBay since the first of the year. Why don't you look into that?
Famous Brand
That doesn't make any sense. The reason ebay works is that you can search on specific goods and then get notified when someone lists them. Otherwise, why not just read the classifieds?
"Famous brand"?
Would your proposed policy apply to all types of goods? I would look very silly advertising a Nikon F3 camera as "famous brand F3." Buyers wouldn't know what it was.
