Court rules against eBay on fake products

PARIS, June 30 (UPI) -- A French court ordered Internet auction giant eBay to pay $61 million to luxury goods company LVMH for the sale of counterfeit merchandise.

The company claimed 90 percent of the items sold on eBay as LVMH products are fakes, and the auction site should do more to police the situation.

EBay said it would appeal the decision on behalf of consumer choice and "the livelihood of law-abiding sellers that eBay empowers every day," The New York Times reported.

Ebay employs 2,000 people to fight fraud, Alexander von Schirmeister, the head of eBay in France, told The Economist earlier this month.

But, LVMH argued fraudulent sales hurt its reputation, making it out to be the bad guys, although the company was not involved in the manufacture or sale of the counterfeit products, The Economist reported.

LVMH also won court battles in France against Google, claiming ads from counterfeiters appear on screens when LVMH product names are keyed in to the computer, the Times reported.