Rand_alThor
Rough_Rock
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2004
- Messages
- 82
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co. has sued eBay Inc., claiming the online auctioneer has contributed to violations of the Tiffany trademark by letting counterfeit items be sold on its Web site, a Tiffany spokesman said Monday.
A study of certain pieces of "Tiffany" jewelry sold on eBay this year showed that 73 percent of the jewelry was counterfeit, Mark Aaron, a Tiffany spokesman, said in a statement confirming the lawsuit, which was filed Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court in New York.
An eBay (EBAY: Research, Estimates) spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment. The stock ended the day down 0.8 percent on the Nasdaq.
The lawsuit asks that eBay be stopped from listing any "Tiffany" merchandise that is not genuine and for eBay to account for profits it made on the sale of counterfeit Tiffany merchandise or else pay up to $1 million for each type of fake Tiffany merchandise sold on the Web site, said James Swire, the lawyer representing Tiffany.
"We have been in correspondence with eBay for some period of time," Swire said. "A year ago, they declined to themselves police their auction sites for counterfeit Tiffany merchandise and said we should use the programs they have to police the site."
Using eBay computer programs, Tiffany had two employees work full-time policing the site, eventually forcing the shutdown of about 19,000 auction sites on eBay, he said.
This year, Tiffany randomly bought silver "Tiffany" jewelry on eBay and found that 73 percent of it was counterfeit, 5 percent of it was genuine and the rest was promoted as "Tiffany-like" but not promoted as genuine, according to Tiffany.
http://money.cnn.com/2004/06/21/technology/ebay_tiffanys.reut/index.htm
A study of certain pieces of "Tiffany" jewelry sold on eBay this year showed that 73 percent of the jewelry was counterfeit, Mark Aaron, a Tiffany spokesman, said in a statement confirming the lawsuit, which was filed Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court in New York.
An eBay (EBAY: Research, Estimates) spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment. The stock ended the day down 0.8 percent on the Nasdaq.
The lawsuit asks that eBay be stopped from listing any "Tiffany" merchandise that is not genuine and for eBay to account for profits it made on the sale of counterfeit Tiffany merchandise or else pay up to $1 million for each type of fake Tiffany merchandise sold on the Web site, said James Swire, the lawyer representing Tiffany.
"We have been in correspondence with eBay for some period of time," Swire said. "A year ago, they declined to themselves police their auction sites for counterfeit Tiffany merchandise and said we should use the programs they have to police the site."
Using eBay computer programs, Tiffany had two employees work full-time policing the site, eventually forcing the shutdown of about 19,000 auction sites on eBay, he said.
This year, Tiffany randomly bought silver "Tiffany" jewelry on eBay and found that 73 percent of it was counterfeit, 5 percent of it was genuine and the rest was promoted as "Tiffany-like" but not promoted as genuine, according to Tiffany.
http://money.cnn.com/2004/06/21/technology/ebay_tiffanys.reut/index.htm
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