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

CLICHY, France - In a decision passed today by the UK High Court of Justice, the court agreed with the view held from the outset by L’Oréal, 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’Oréal 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’Oréal trusts that the Judge’s comments will be considered. L’Oréal remains confident of a positive outcome.

Source: L’Oreal

Press contact David Macdonald, L’Oréal, dmacdonald at uk.loreal.com, +44-7826-875518