Trade Marks and E-Commerce: L'Oreal and Interflora
Over the last few months, there has been a spate of claims by luxury goods manufacturers against eBay. In RG 07/11365 L'Oréal SA c eBay France SA in which the Tribunal de Grande Instance of Paris dismissed trade mark infringement claims by L'Oréal against eBay for providing an on-line market for counterfeit goods on 13 May 2009. A similar case came before Mr Justice Anold in L'Oreal SA and others v eBay International AG and others [2009] EWHC 1094 on 22 May 2009. The questions that arose in both cases were summarized by the judge as follows: "Are eBay Europe liable for trade mark infringements committed by their users? Do eBay Europe themselves commit infringements by using trade marks in relation to infringing goods? " In this case the well known cosmetics, skincare and toiletries multinational, L'Oréal, sued a number of alleged counterfeiters and parallel importers for trade mark infringement. These were defendants 4 to 10. They also sued various eBay comp...