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A French court has slapped US$30000 (20,000 euros) fine on eBay after it was found guilty of selling counterfeit goods.

The court has asked eBay to pay this fine as damages to French luxury group Hermes.

According to the ruling, court found eBay directly responsible for the sale on its website of three Hermes bags including two fakes, for a total of 3,000 euros. It has been ordered to pay damages jointly with the woman who put the bags up for sale.

Court said:

By selling Hermes bags and branded accessories on the eBay.fr site, and by failing to act within their powers to prevent reprehensible use of the site,” the user and eBay “committed acts of counterfeiting and imitation of French brand names … to the detriment of Hermes international.

While eBay has consistently honoured takedown requests on counterfeit items, the ruling does not bode well for future lawsuits. EBay is also known to be in the crosshairs of Tiffany and Louis Vuitton, among others.

According to Portero.com, an online auction marketplace that authenticates branded luxury products, as much as $15bn, or 10 per cent of the branded luxury goods sold globally, are counterfeit.

The French union of manufacturers UNIFAB welcomed the ruling as an important step in the fight against piracy and counterfeiting.

It should be interesting to note that cosmetics giant L’Oreal last September launched legal action against eBay in five European countries including France, over the sale of bottles of counterfeit perfume. It has accused eBay of complicity in the sale of counterfeit goods by allowing buyers and sellers to transact without imposing any controls.

The court has ordered eBay to publish the ruling on its French homepage for three months.