Want to Increase Online Sales? Don't Sell Counterfeit Product

A french woman is finding out the hard way that luxury merchandisers like Hermes are tired of counterfeit products flooding the market; she is the latest to be sued by a French luxury company after selling 3 of their purses on eBay.fr to the tune of €3000!  Weekly Challenges magazie has reported Wed, Oct 10th that two of the three have been declared counterfeit, and it appears as though Hermes has filed suit against eBay as well.

Hermes isn't the only one taking action - in fact, they're the fourth. Other big names like Christian Dior, Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, and L'Oreal have all filed suit against eBay for not taking more action when they know that counterfeit products are being sold.

We previously talked about this back in August, when Louis Vuitton filed suit against eBay to try and stop the sales of perfumes that are branded under its label.  At that time, the perfumes were not counterfeit, but instead, they French conglomerate used a law that addresses "selective distribution."

In its own defense, eBay has said that they always take action when they find out that counterfeit products are being distributed via their auction site; but how do they really police such a thing?

It will be interesting to see how this story continues to unfold. I will also be curious to see if, after openly discussing it in a newspaper interview in August,  the head of French retailer PRR - owner of luxury group Gucci - files suit against eBay as well.  Only time will tell.

In the meantime, if you are a reseller on eBay, be sure your products are not counterfeit; it could get you in a load of trouble!