German Court Says eBay Should Be Able To Tell A Fake Rolex From A Real One

from the got-any-watch-specialists-on-hand? dept

Tue, Jul 31st 2007 2:21pm — Mike Masnick

For many years, various luxury brands have had problems with people selling counterfeit goods on eBay -- leading to a variety of lawsuits. Of course, most of these lawsuits are incorrectly targeted. They're usually filed against eBay, rather than the seller of the goods. eBay doesn't inspect the goods or make any claim to the authenticity of them. That should be up to the buyer and seller to work out. However, a few months ago, it appears that a German court felt differently, and told eBay that it may be liable for fake Rolexes being sold on the site, even if eBay has no real way of knowing what's real and what's fake. The court seemed to indicate that eBay should be able to tell from the price, but that's not necessarily true. In the meantime, it's not clear why this isn't a problem that the market will start to work out by itself. For many, many years you've been able to buy fake Rolexes on the streets of New York City, but Rolex doesn't sue the New York City government for letting this happen. It recognizes that most people know that the Rolex you buy from a street vendor probably isn't real. Along those very lines, Rolex has introduced programs to designate legitimate Rolexes on eBay already -- so this seems like the type of "problem" that could work itself out without making eBay liable, but apparently it's too late for that.

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Filed Under: auctions, counterfeit, fraud, liability, luxury goods
Companies: ebay

16 Comments

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Brad, 31 Jul 2007 @ 3:27pm

eBay is responsible?
If eBay is responsible, then the NYTimes or any newspaper should be responsible if someone sells fake goods in a classified ad. Radio and TV stations should be responsible for any store advertising on radio or TV.
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jul 2007 @ 3:36pm

Re: eBay is responsible?
The law doesn't apply the same to everyone.
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jul 2007 @ 3:41pm

More bullsh--t politics and technically uneducated judges - ho hum.

Of course it should not be tolerated - but as a topic for discussion here - nope.
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david logan, 31 Jul 2007 @ 4:35pm

German Court Says eBay Should Be Able To Tell A Fa
I'm about sick of hearing what German Courts have to say about anything....
Go drive your Volkswagen, eat some kraut and stfu.
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jul 2007 @ 4:52pm

Germans....idiots
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jul 2007 @ 4:52pm

Germans....idiots
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Nick (profile), 31 Jul 2007 @ 5:19pm

How do you say "buyer beware" in German?
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jul 2007 @ 6:12pm

"Buyer Beware in German", thats how
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John Doe, 31 Jul 2007 @ 7:02pm

A clear sign that Germany maybe heading down if th
A clear sign that Germany maybe heading down if they don't over turn it.
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charlie potatoes, 31 Jul 2007 @ 7:14pm

hold the phone........
are you insinuating that the $45.00 Rolex i bought on 42nd street may not be real? well damn..just damn damn damn
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Jeff, 1 Aug 2007 @ 7:23am

...
Dear Germany,
You're still not off the hook. You have 700 more years of repentance, shut your collective face, no one cares.

Love,
Me

PS, Rolexes don't tick...the answer? Screw picture previews, get video.
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Propeller Hat, 1 Aug 2007 @ 6:55pm

German Efficiency
The German legal system relies on a principle of 'Responsibility and Authority'. If you are an Adult (some of you might be one day) you have the authority of an adult over your minors (i.e. children). However, you also carry the responsibility for those minors. Any car they steal and torch you are responsible for - not guilty but responsible, after German law. A commercial entity selling a product is - within reason - responsible for the product. Again no guilt, but resposibility! Some civilised countries use the term 'warranty' for reference. And it seems to work for the Germans - they focus on adding value and improving their exports instead of squibbling with sulking teenagers on e-bay.
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Mark, 20 Nov 2007 @ 8:57pm

NYC don't make money out of street vendors selling fake Rolex watches, whereas ebay do, hence their reluctance to jump on people selling fake items as genuine or give up the sellers of fakes to the rightful trademark holders so that they can take it up directly with them.

Ask yourself this, if you designed and sold an exclusive product and saw fakes being sold as genuine or even being sold as outright fakes while the seller and ebay make money that should rightfully be in your pocket, how would you feel about it?

Ebay try to sidestep any responsibility by claiming the seller is responsible for the accuracy of the listing, ebay still profit from the listing and final sale price so pretty much don't care as it is in ebay's best interests to do nothing! Tiffany sued ebay for the same reasons, because ebay do not take action in most cases to remove trademark infringing fakes and will not give out information on the sellers they claim are responsible for these listings. I can well see why trademark holders become exasperated enough to go to court over it!

Way to go Rolex and let's see more people force ebay to be accountable for what they allow to be sold on there, afterall they are lining their pocfkets from it and many people are being ripped off with counterfeit goods.

For example the genuine Rolex you buy is really counterfeit, it falls apart in a couple of months, you now have a negative opinion of the quality of Rolex watches. This is damaging in itself to the company as well as the poor sucker that lost their money.

If any of you were actually smart, you might appreciate this before you make childish comments about something you clearly know little about.
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JILLY, 31 Mar 2008 @ 5:38pm

Re:
I could not agree with you more!!! FINALLY, I read something about ebay's disgusting greed from someone that actually made any sense!!!

Anyone who would protect ebay does not know what is going on because if they did.... they would be just as disgusted.

And if they weren't disgusted they are probably one of those sellers.
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Don O, 11 Dec 2008 @ 8:03am

Germans are retards
Strict and retards cant work things out with them
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k00lit, 17 Aug 2010 @ 2:00pm

selling rolex
There are many ways how to tell if rolex is fake. I agree that ebay should know it. Aside from ebay i know a website who knows how to distinguish a fake rolex. Check out www.webuywatches.com they also get paid you on your watch at to price.
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