However bad the world economy gets, the L’Oreal Group’s legal team looks to be safe from layoffs. L’Oreal, the world’s largest beauty products company, has put all sorts of stuff on the team’s plate, including a new lawsuit against eBay in the UK.
A BBC article explains the basics of the situation. “Cosmetics giant L’Oreal is starting proceedings against online auction site eBay at the High Court in the UK for selling fake versions of its products. . . . L’Oreal says eBay could do more to stop the sale of counterfeit products.”
L’Oreal has said this before, of course; you may remember that it lost a lawsuit against eBay in Belgium last August. eBay successfully argued that, by removing individual auctions when problems are identified, it’s fulfilling its obligations. At the same time, luxury brands Hermes and LVMH have had some luck in France.
So L’Oreal now seems to be banking on a sort of spaghetti-at-the-wall approach. Remember the reference to a full plate? The BBC reports, “L’Oreal has started proceedings against eBay in France, Belgium, Germany, Spain and the UK.”
eBay’s investors don’t seem to be too concerned about all this, though, as the company’s stock is up 0.38 percent right now (and the Dow and Nasdaq have both moved exactly 0.39 percent in the other direction).
