Tiffany sues eBay

I saw this squib on TechDirt; the NYT article mentiones is at this
URL:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/technology/29ebay.html?ei=5090&en=37c0f658ecbcd4b1&ex=1296190800&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
or
http://tinyurl.com/d7o4b

from the you-just-realized? dept.

theodp writes
"Selling knockoffs isn't just for Times Square anymore. The NY Times
reports that smaller eBay buyers and sellers are grumbling about the
abundance of counterfeit pieces, and Tiffany has filed a lawsuit
accusing eBay of facilitating counterfeiting, finding that three out
of four 'Tiffany' pieces they secretly purchased on eBay were fakes.
The Tiffany case threatens eBay's very business model, since it would
be nearly impossible to police a site with 180M members and 60M items
for sale."

The article is actually really one-sided. There's a serious legal
question concerning whether or not eBay has legal responsibility --
and, so far, the law is pretty clear that they don't. They're just the
service provider and shouldn't have responsibility. The responsibility
should fall on the sellers who are falsely advertising products. The
law is pretty clear on that. However, from a PR standpoint, it would
make sense for eBay to come up with a better solution for policing
their own sellers. Another thought is that this should open up more
opportunities for others to provide certification services for certain
products. Either way, the idea that this is eBay's fault is simply
shifting the blame to the easier, but not accurate, target.



Leigh

--
Consequences, shmonsequences, as long as I'm rich. - D. Duck
.

Relevant Pages

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