Recent French court rulling and eBay

I saw on the news today that Louis Vuitton won a multi-million dollar lawsuit against eBay for selling counterfeit handbags. I know this case was in France and it will be appealed but what if any implications are there on the selling of other counterfeit items on eBay, ie coins? The court said that having users police the listings was not enough, so could we see eBay police sometime in the future?

 

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We discussed this verdict a few weeks ago. (I'm sure you can easily find the thread using Search.) I don't think the case bodes well for eBay.

 

Even when someone spots what appears to be a fake on ebay and notifies ebay, it's rare that anything happens. The auction in question just continues to its end and some poor sap wins a fake at an inflated price.

 

this, however, could spell the beginning of the end for ebay

 

I think Ebay should post applications for "Watchers". A Watcher would be someone very knowledgeable in a "field" and would notify Ebay of counterfeits and even possibly have the power to pull the auction themselves. Sorta like a Mod here. :bow:

Ribbit

 

if they accept your suggestion we will both become rich ribbit?

 

For some reason I cannot envision eBay paying people to take business away from them.

 

Who said they'd get paid? Do Mods here get paid?

Ribbit

 

Yes we have the pleasure of so many wonderful people that is payment enough

 

As it should be, I dont like fakes any more than the next person but I dont want some guy whose knowledge might be questionable with the power to pull auctions simply because he has decided to be the arbiter of what is fake and real....I can see someone who works for Louis Vuitton or Tiffany making such calls on their own merchandise, not some dude on the internet nobody knows from Adam making the call on coins.

I dont see this hurting ebay that bad...maybe just the honest users who will end up swallowing the cost for any law suit and the price to defend against it...Such a thing will only hurt the honest end user sadly as ebay will pass it along....

 

I agree with toad. Someone who is a confirmed professional, like a former TPG grader or something. They may take business away from ebay, but could save them expensive lawsuits in the longrun. Also, people will be more willing to bid higher if they knew that trained professionals were looking out for them on the authenticity of their purchases. Just IMHO.

 

Perhaps people with the power to flag suspicious coins , but not the power to pull them .
rzage

 

I'm not saying that you or I should be able to pull an auction but if you (or I) could point out to ebay definitive reasons, with references, to show that an item is a fake then why shouldn't that information be presented to them?

Some thing are simply obvious. Which of these are real? Which are fake? Should ebay have allowed the fake one(s) to be presented to someone who might not know the difference?

 

The top 2 are definite fakes the others don't look right either :smile And I'm not comparing them with any real Morgans .
rzage

 

That is the key, being able to prove WHY a coin is fake. Ebay can't just go around pulling auctions just because someone, or even several someones say it is fake. But they are much more likely to act if you can explain, SPECIFICALLY why it is fake. Giving some personal credentials ,if you have them, doesn't hurt either so they won't think you're just some Joe Shmoe.

What is obvious to those of us with experience working with coins for a long time is not always so obvious to a newbie or someone at eBay who has zero knowledge of what they are looking at. If it was really so obvious they wouldn't be able to sell the fakes for the ridiculous amounts of money some of these poor fakes bring.

 

I think that is pretty dead on...

without doubt I go there and some of the fake ancients just shine like the sun to me and I cannot image how they would get sold but then it does. I have always thought of ebay like a flea market...there are very few things there worth buying but there are often hidden treasures. I just assume there will always be crooks there and you takes your chances.

I would say that its good if there are no or low cost experts that are willing to check reports. I would hope that few of them are dealers and they err on the side of caution.

 

I thought there would be more than the one response posted. Anyone else care to chime in?