L'Oreal Welcomes the UK High Court of Justice's Guiding Comments on Measures to Prevent Trade Mark Infringement on eBay's UK Platform

CLICHY, France, May 22 /PRNewswire/ -- In a decision passed today by the UK High Court of Justice, the court agreed with the view held from the outset by L'Oreal, that eBay could do more to prevent trade mark infringement and suggested 10 measures:

    
    - filter listings before they are posted on the Site

    - use additional filters, including filters to detect listings of
      not-for-sale products and unboxed products 

    - filter descriptions as well as titles 

    - require sellers to disclose their names and addresses when listing
      items 

    - impose additional restrictions on the volumes of high risk products,
      such as fragrances and cosmetics, that can be listed at any one time 

    - be more consistent in their policies, for example regarding sales of 
      unboxed products 

    - adopt policies to combat types of infringement which are not
      presently addressed, and in particular the sale of non-European 
      Economic Area (EEA) goods without the consent of the trade mark owners 

    - take greater account of negative feedback (from site users) 

    - apply sanctions more rigorously 

    - be more rigorous in suspending accounts linked to those of users
      whose accounts have been suspended

    The UK High Court of Justice considered that the relevant European trade
mark law and the eCommerce Directive were unclear and referred nearly all the
issues to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for further guidance.

    Since L'Oreal has maintained that eBay cannot benefit from the regime of
liability for hosting providers under the eCommerce Directive, it is
satisfied to note that the UK Court preferred its view before referring the
matter to the ECJ.

    The parties will now propose to the UK High Court of Justice the precise
formulation of the questions to be referred to the ECJ for further guidance.
L'Oreal trusts that the Judge's comments will be considered. L'Oreal remains
confident of a positive outcome.