You may recall our blog entry last year on cosmetics giant L’Oreal and their campaign against counterfeit products sold on eBay. Well it looks like the French courts have dealt another blow to that campaign following a decision earlier this month dismissing L’Oreal’s trade mark infringement action against the online auctioneer.

The Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris agreed that eBay had acted in “good faith” by providing rights holders with the means to counter the counterfeiters, and that this was enough to dismiss the claims of infringement by L’Oreal in France. This brings eBay’s tally of wins against L’Oreal to two, following the Belgian court’s decision last year against the cosmetics company. That said, victory went to L’Oreal in Germany when the courts there declared eBay responsible for selling perfume products without packaging.

It is little wonder then, that both parties are keen on claiming victory from the recent UK high court decision. While the UK high court let eBay off the hook by declaring last week that eBay could not be held accountable for the sale of counterfeit L’Oreal products, it also issued a warning of sorts to eBay, saying that it could do more to help prevent the sale of counterfeit goods - for example, by using filters to scan for well-known brand names and imposing additional restrictions on high-risk products.

While the points will officially go to eBay this round - which eBay will use (as it has previously) to reassure its commitment to the “consumers and thousands of entrepreneurs who sell legitimate goods on eBay every day” (from eBay UK Head of Trust and Safety Richard Ambrose) - L’Oreal were quick to also claim that the UK judge agreed with its view, issuing a statement that the UK court had agreed that eBay could have done more to stop trade mark infringement from occurring. The tussle is set to continue in the US and Spain, the last two jurisdictions left to decide the fate of future cosmetics sales on eBay.

- Daniel Lo

Read about Actuate IP’s trade mark infringement dispute resolution services.