E-bay sued by labels

Luxury goods labels Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior Couture are suing online auctioneer eBay for a combined sum of US$47million.

The two labels began a civil complaint in Paris over the summer alleging that products sold on eBay bearing their name were in fact counterfeit goods, according to a report in the Financial Times. Tiffany, the jeweller, is also suing the auction site in the US.

Louis Vuitton, part of France’s LVMH, is understood to be claiming US$25.6million while Christian Dior Couture is demanding US$21.7 million.

LVMH has already successfully sued search firm Google in France over allegations that it had provided links to sites selling counterfeit versions of Louis Vuitton products. Google was fined US$256,000, a sum that was later increased to US$384,000 when Google lost its appeal.