If flea market owners are liable, then eBay should be as well. eBay touts that it has the buyers' interests in mind, but it appears as though they generally have the sellers' interests at heart; it's how they make their money. They're also notoriously lax in booting sellers that get caught selling counterfeit items, and don't offer recourse to buyers that get stuck with counterfeit junk. Yes, it should be "Buyer, beware" but if a buyer is told that the merchandise is genuine, there is no way to disprove that than to buy the item and have it examined for authenticity; it's not like one personally can examine the item beforehand. It's about time eBay was held to the same consumer protection standards as a brick and mortar shop or outlet.

A flea market owner can walk the isles and inspect the merchandise. How can eBay do that? If Tiffany & Co. tells them an item is a fake they remove it (their claim). Why should eBay enforce the T & Co. copyright? Does T & Co. enforce eBay's copyrights? T & Co. could also seek a warrant and criminal action against the offender. Do they? Or do they just want to punish eBay for being smarter?

There are more problems with fakes being sold on eBay than just with trademarked products. eBay continues to be less than open and very combative with a group of coin collectors who see large numbers of fake coins being offered on eBay. eBay defends some of these fake sellers who do a large amount business on the site. There is a mechanism for identifying fake coins to the eBay staff but these large dealers appear to have gained control of this process which should be moderated by impartial authorities. For supporting information, look at the YAHOO group "coinforgeryebay"

fact tiffany has not paid for there order in 2 yrs leaving the actual maker in hong kong holding the bag then files a lawsuit to maintain perseptive value in there intellectual property's there jewelry is worth exactly what the legitamate weight is the rest is buyer ignorance and perseption

The problem with the analogy of flea market v. EBay is that Ebay is more of a bulletin board of the local supermarket than a flea market. EBay does not store the good that are sold. It does not even really get to see the goods being sold in person. While a flea market owner can see and inspect the goods that the stall owner is selling, Ebay cannot ask the seller to send them a copy of the goods to their HQ to determine authenticity. Even if it does, how can it be certain the seller is not sending a authentic decoy so he/she can sell counterfeits during the real sale?

The problem of counterfeit is not going away. If Tiffany's position held, then internet commerce as we know it might be destroyed. For example, anyone who sell goods from Ebay or Craigslist would have to prove their goods are authentic, which is almost impossible. The idea of peer-to-peer commerce would end as we see it until internet commerce is dominated by large corporations that either sells the goods directly (like Tiffanys.com, eLuxury.com) or have the resources to prove and authenticate every item they resell (authorized agents).

If Tiffany and Co. is that concerned about forgeries, they should do what The Artist Formerly Known as Prince does and have a legal staff that is solely dedicated to policing the internet for counterfeits and copyright infringing items. In the long run they'd probably save more money doing that than battling eBay in court.

Ebay also does not care about fakes in the world of Egyptian antiquities either. Ebay is routinely notified of OBVIOUS fakes, but yet they continue to allow sales to unsuspecting buyers. As was mentioned before - they would not want to upset their Power or high volume sellers.

What’s the big deal here. Is selling a few counterfeit bracelets on eBay going to put Tiffany's out of business? I don't think eBay condones the act but it's ridiculous to think that any company with this business model could be expected to screen every item.

If a crime is being committed it is that people are wasting money on diamonds at all.

Ebay aka Flea-bay is a cesspool for scam artists and people selling counterfeit and stolen goods. How do you think you are going to buy the same item for half as much on ebay? Because it is STOLEN! The goons at ebay don't care, they are laughing all the way to the bank.

e-bay, Craigs list and other outlets on the web are the newest "fences" for stolen property taken by organised rings besides selling many more forgeries than just coins. If a seller is completely free to post a picture of one item and ship another, it is the perfect haunt for crooks. Someone should be protecting the buyer because the web does not allow examination and e-bay makes the profits. Existing consumer protection does not work with web sites that can be droped one day for fraud by ebay and reappear tomorrow with a new e-bay name and the same crooked junk.

I was sold counterfeit merchandise on eBay and they ignored my complaints. Thousands of people complain to them about this, but they only respond when the lawyers get involved.

eBay is too busy regulating SILLY "you can't list that!" rules.

Do you know that a seller faces banishment if they sell VINTAGE TEACHER EDITION TEXTBOOKS? That's right. List a 1948 teacher edition textbook, and if you're reported, your account is in jeopardy.

What does eBay think buyers are going to do? Go back in time and take the test they flunked in the late 1940s?

Somehow, someone convinced eBay that teacher edition books must be controlled....so like everything else, eBay went overboard.

Meanwhile, their failure to control REAL PROBLEMS has cost them my business as a buyer, and I'm on my way out the door as a seller.

Cho (the Virginia Tech gunman) was able to buy gun parts on eBay. That was OK. The person who sold them to him, certainly didn't face banishment. But we who made the big mistake of trying to sell older collectible teacher editions, do.

Go figure.

E-Bay is flawed. I know this because I made a "purchase" of a "list" this "list" had an item pictured that would lead a person to believe that they would be getting the pictured item for an unbelievable low price.
I purchased this "item" to show my son how easy the scam was. As I expected, I got a bullshit list of hyperlinks, most of which did not even relate to the pictured item.
Then I wrote a schathing rating for the service rendered. I in turn got a scathing from the "seller" and this in turn made ME look like the bad guy.
I took several peoples' reports of this scam to have the "seller" removed from the site.
Although I have bought many things off E-Bay, that I am happy with, E-Bay needs to have someone at least "proof read" some of the items people are "selling"

eBay is like your pennysaver throwaway - you know, the ads you pick up on your way out of the supermarket? They are a venue for sellers and buyers to meet, nothing more. How can they be expected to police every item that is advertised for sale?

Some of these trademark holders demand things be done in the extreme. For example, try listing a movie with the title containing the name "Tiffany" in the title. Not Tiffany the corporation, but Tiffany, an actress. Likely, this item will not hit the site because of the filters in place to catch counterfiets.

eBay is being bullied by corporations like Tiffany, Louis Vitton, Nike and others. Why? Because they have the resources to do the bullying. While eBay is undoubtedly a large corporation itself, who suffers? The VP's in San Jose?

Nope.

The little guys. Both the buyers and the sellers.

If you had a Tiffany something or other and you wanted to sell it, shouldn't that be YOUR right?

I think it should.

Listen... Tiffany is going after eBay because Tiffany knows it is IMPOSSIBLE to remotely confirm the authenticity of every piece of merchandise for sale on an internet site in which anyone can become a seller. eBay is an easier target, because Tiffany only has to go after the ONE target with big pockets. 'Gee, why would we want to spend all that time and expense going after each and every fraud artist on the net... we'll just pretend eBay can do what we won't, and cry about it to a judge.' It's disgusting to think that Tiffany would have the audacity to blame eBay for not doing what Tiffany knows cannot be done.

As a buyer and seller on eBay, I'm of two minds on this issue. As a seller, I dislike the notion that any time I have a trademarked item, I might have to somehow prove to eBay that it's real. Unless I send them the actual item, how do they know that the photo I send them is of the item I'm selling? It's simply not doable in any significant way, unless they ban such sales from small sellers like me. In that case, they might as well ban all sales, because how can they assure that ANYTHING being sold is what it's advertised to be? I honestly don't think it's eBay's job to police these entries because of these circumstances.

On the other hand, as a buyer, I'm well aware of all the crooks and crap on eBay. I protect myself as much as possible by buying only from people with ratings over 98% and who have more than 25 ratings. I also do not buy anything expensive. The most pricy thing I ever got was a $40 mailing scale. Thus, if I lose money, it won't be much. (I only lost money once, and that was $12.) Frankly, I think anyone who buys expensive stuff sight unseen via eBay is crazy. I also think that eBay could do a LOT more to protect buyers. For one thing, they focus on the trivial and ignore the important. For example, they immediately removed a jewelry entry of mine because I accidentally violated language rules about what you can call fake pearls, but they drag, drag, drag their feet about sellers with a recent history of fraud. When I lost that $12, the guy received about a dozen negative marks in a row and as many complaints, but he wasn't kicked off the system for weeks. This is bad for business, eBay. It will eventually come back to bite you in the butt unless you reassess your priorities.

I have to say my experience notifying ebay about fakes was not good. I was told in a sense that it was not my business and the item sold. It was 100% reproduction and sold at a real price. There is a very famous story about stamps on ebay of fake condition. They have a right to do what they do, but they do not in any way work to protect buyers as they want people to think.

To suggest that Ebay is simply a fence for those selling stolen merchandise is a stretch. I'm an Ebay seller. I do not market stolen merchandise. I'm able to offer items at less than retail because I make my purchases from legitimate wholesalers, estate sales and even retail stores during their killer end of season sales. As an Ebay buyer I always look at the seller's feedback before I make a purchase. I've never received a fake anything because I'm a careful and informed buyer. I don't believe it's Ebay's responsibility to police the authenticity of items being sold on its site, and can't imagine the nightmare that would ensue. Right now it takes 6 hours from the time my listings post to the time they're actually visible on the site. If they were to police each and every item, my 7 day auctions would become 5-day auctions just because it would take them 2 days to sort through the millions of items looking for fakes. We're way to willing to let other people or entities take the heat for what should be our responsibility. If people would take the time to research and buy smart, the frauds would be out of business.

Zippo lighters are routinely counterfeited, and done so well it is almost impossible to tell the real from the fake. Zippo had its own experts examine a number of counterfeits and it took a microscopic examination to discern any difference. It's not just Zippo. Modern machinery can make identical reproductions of many things. Many "legitimate" brick and mortar stores knowingly buy a certain percentage of counterfeits and salt their shelves with 25% or so of them. It boosts theior profit margin considerably.
Ebay should post a PROMINENT notice on all merchandise represented as new, stating that undetectible counterfeiting is a reality of modern commerce and that unless the piece is actually examined and appraised by an independent, reputable third party, the buyer is risking getting faux merchandise. Realistically, this will never happen. I agree with a previous poster who said buying anything from Ebay or Craig's List, etc., is a crapshoot and one should never buy anything that costs more than a few bucks, a hundred, tops. Ebay is good for finding car parts and stuff like that, but even there I have a friend who bought an obscure jeep part and later found out that the vendor had bought it from a major parts seller and added a significant markup.

My company produces educational material that we sell to schools and universities. Our DVDs tend to sell for around $100 because the market is very small and because we spend thousands of dollars putting them together. We have found very poor quality counterfeit copies on eBay and Amazon. Neither eBay nor Amazon wants to do anything about it. All they do is tell us that we should report these sellers to the "authorities". Of course they won't help us do anything to find out more information about these counterfeiters. They hide behind the DMCA and say they're not responsible for anything even though we've offered time and again to show them we're being ripped off. They just don't care because they're making money. Basically eBay has become the world's largest fence for stolen goods.

If you're stupid enough to buy a "tiffany" ring on e-bay you deserve to get scammed.

There is an easy solution to this problem. Anytime international mail arrives into the US with counterfeit Tiffany items, allow Customs to assess duty on the item based on the retail value Tiffany charges.

Hopefully Tiffany's wins their case in court, and Ebay then prohibits the sale of any Tiffany product on their site. Then Tiffany's can cry about why their products aren't as "desirable" any longer.

It doesn't appear that Tiffany's lawyer James Swire has a very clear understanding of how eBay operates. From his wording, I get the impression that he thinks there's some big warehouse with an eBay sign out front, and boxes of fake Tiffany items inside. Little does he know that eBay's access to the items being sold is no better than that of the bidders: a description of the item and some photos, clear or otherwise.

eBay is a medium for buying and selling, but at no time does eBay get to inspect the merchandise any closer than the average on-line user looking at his monitor. While Mr. Swire would love to think of eBay as the manager of a very large flea market, a manager who should "know" when his merchants are selling fakes, buying and selling on the Internet simply does not work that way. An eBay listing is no more and no less than a description, a photo, and a means of paying for it.

While eBay has its flaws, and there are many, it's a stretch to claim "contributory infringement" in the sale of counterfeit items -- a stretch that requires a certain level of ignorance about the basic business operation of the company that Tiffany is attacking. While they would love to shut down the flea market because of a large percentage of fake items being sold there, they would have much better luck suing the analogy than the reality.

Tiffany is shooting themselves in the foot with this law suit. They may as well ask the government to take pre-emptive measures against the invasion of aliens.

To those that claim Tiffany & Co. is bullying eBay, "the little guy", I ask that they please do some research before making such a blanketing statement.

2006 sales
Tiffany & Co. $2.648 Billion
eBay $5.969 Billion

eBay has more than twice the revenue that Tiffany's does. What's more, eBay outnumbers Tiffany & Co. by 4,300 employees. If you want to make an argument in favor of eBay, that's fine, but at least make it based on sound knowledge of the current situation.

Ebay is not the same as a supermarket ad or classified advertisement in a newspaper because unlike those venues, they profit from from every item that sells on their site. A newspaper classified section charges people for listing the items for sale. Ebay does that as well. However, not only do they collect a listing fee for advertising the item on ebay, but they also collect a "final value fee" based on the final winning price. It is in their financial interest to have as many listings as they can on their site. The more winning bids - the more monty they make.

I would guess that this creates a conflict of interest. Those of us who use ebay know that they don't police the site - they rely on users to report violations which they then investigate. If something doesn't get reported, then the auction runs to completion and ebay collects the fees based on the winning bid price - that includes those counterfeit auctions. They make a bigger profit the more auctions end with winning bidders because they get a cut of the final winning price. So, the argument may be that ebay doesn't police the auctions because they profit from those auctions. Anyone who regularly reports violations on the site has likely observed the inconsistencies in enforcement of violations, particularly if it involves a high volume seller!

Ebay has certainly gone downhill since I used to dig through the listings 3 or more years ago. there is just so much cheap trash being touted there. However, there is no way for ebay to assure that the Trade Marked items are genuine when they don't have physical access to the item - unless they receive valid, specific complaints. They need to spend more on controlling seller abuse of their listings. I was never stuck, but I never bought a 'diamond' for $5.95. I'm sure some of the complaints are from flakes, but ebay needs to followup the others to show 'due diligence'. Beyond that it is Tiffanys responsibility to report the peddler of fake Trademarked items to the appropriate authorities. They benefit from the Trademark system so they should bear the responsibility of seeing that enforcement is takes place through the court system or the FTC (do they do anything anymore?)

I too have found that ebay promotes dishonesty in its sellers, especially in the powerseller category. We sold a Rolls on ebay once and two years later some other creep used our picture to sell another rolls. It took me 3 weeks and 27 emails to every known ebay contact for security to finally take the listing down. When the car sold, I contacted the buyer and explained about the picture issue. They found the car was not the same as the picture. After the guy re-listed the Rolls, I challenged ebay to rectify the situation and made no bones that I would continue to contact the purchasers of the fraud. Additionally I have bantered with ebay's stupid legal team for months over the multitude of powersellers who inflate their percentages by "threatening" buyers with negative feedback if they get negative feedback first. I rarely rely on the percentages anymore because they can be tragically false. I can give hundreds of examples but they mostly don't care and their arrogance will, as others are saying, ultimately and unfortunately be their demise. I have found the only way to deal with these sleazebags is to always pay with paypal and use their resolution center instead of ebay's. Since paypal is more of a banking enterprise, they are governed more stringently.

Let's face it - as long as feeBay is making a buck, they could care less about who gets the short end. I have been scammed and have notified feeBay about the situation, only to have them do nothing. Known scammers know it's a haven for them, so why would a fee generating company do anything BUT plead ignorance.

The people that say PayPal is any different than eBay are wrong...eBay owns PayPal...

>>"EBay's record in responding is exemplary," argued Bruce Rich, eBay's lawyer. “The mind-set of our client ... has been we want to work and find a way to fix it."<<

Wrong. Ebay's record is a DISGRACE.

On many occasions, I have notified ebay of items which could not possibly be genuine article.

They responded they work with the trademark holder to remove items known to be fake.

Here are the facts.

In it's early days ebay regularly sold fake Rolexes labeled as such.

When they stopped doing that, 'authenticity not guaranteed' was commonly used for shaky sales on ebay.

Ebay will never miss an opportunity to be willfully ignorant of an illegitimate transaction on its site.

When they hear of a bad item, Ebay will pretend the issue is some sort of gray area and permit the sale.

If Ebay beats the rap on this, it will establish a precedent:

Anyone who can host and profit from a illegitimate third party sale may do so without zero consequences.

In a just world, Tiffany deserves big-time punitive damages

eBay "quickly removes fraudulent items when notified by trademark holders" - but they have no mechanism whatsoever for normal folks to report that items being sold are knock-offs. I tried reporting some PDFs of copywrited books (the publisher did not sell PDFs of those books at that time), and also some movies that were clearly not legit (the movie hadn't even been released yet), and eBay doesn't have any mechanism for me as a customer to report the issue. When I tried sending to a generic customer service account, I was either ignored or told that only the holder of the trademark/copywrite was allowed to report the issue. That doesn't seem to me to be a good-faith effort to stamp out this sort of illegal activity.

2 Rules of thumb when purchasing an item on ebay:
1.) If it seems too good to be true, it is.
2.) Always pay with PayPal. If an item is a fake or isn't shipped at all, you can file a 'dispute" and get your money back. Granted this will take some time, but good luck getting your money back if you mail a check or wire the cash.

E-Bay doesn't care what's sold, as long as they get their money for it. They only get involved in matters of fraud if it's going to cost them $$$ or it's very high-profile bad publicity.

Take your chances on Ebay.

E-Bay is nothing more than an Internet flea-market, full of thieves. Buyers on E-Bay are fools.

I live relatively close to New York and as anyone who has been to Chinatown should know, be very cautious about what you purchase as authentic on ebay. I have Coach purses that I've bought for $30 that I've seen on ebay for over $200. People can't tell the difference when I'm carrying it in plain site. All you have to go on from ebay is a picture. You can buy Tiffany jewelry for $10 if you walk the streets there. Bet lots of that ends up on ebay. BUYER BEWARE!

Why in the world would you buy a Tiffany ring on Ebay? Are you that cheap? Of course you are going to get scammed. Thousands of people buy immitation Oakley products from vendors across the country and no one complains. Who cares. People are stupid.

eBay can do more. As they have become a big player, they should do more. They should understand it is in their own interest to protect buyers rather then sellers. After a couple of not-so-smooth purchases on eBay, I have got disappointed with them. They don't live up to their promises on consumer protection. So, I go get my stuff somewhere else.

However, I do NOT think eBay should be liable for fraudulent ads on their site. That is the sellers responsibility.

It seems to me that the simplest way to give to proper incentives to all parties is to hold ebay liable for the purchase price should a buyer be duped into buying counterfeit merchandise. This is similar to the buyer protection policy they use now, i.e., if an item is not as described, the buyer and seller are encouraged to settle it themselves. If this fails, and there is clearly deceptive description, ebay will often refund the money to the buyer. Claiming an item is Tiffany when it really isn't is a misleading description which should fall under current protections from ebay. Why would this not be sufficient protection to the unwary buyer?

Whenever there is an internet commerce site like E-Bay, frauds and counterfeits are always a possibility. A few years ago, I bought what was described as a real Coach wallet. The pics looked legitimate as did the item description. The seller also had near-perfect feedback, so I thought I was good to go. To make a long story short, when I received the item it was clearly a fake. The stitching was off, the label wasn't quite right, etc. I quickly contacted the seller and asked for my money back, as I would hate to expose him as a fraud to the E-bay community. He quickly agreed to take the merchandise back and pay for return shipping as well. In all the purchases I've made off of E-bay, this was my only encounter with a scammer.

In any case...here's the deal. Whenever purchasing a used item-whether off E-bay, Craiglist, or even your local "For Sale" listings, the bottom line is simple: BUYER BEWARE. The market Venues are just that-VENUES for sellers and buyers to meet. It is unreasonable and unjust to expect these sites to monitor every single item...it is our job(s) as buyers and sellers to be our own "police."

That said, hope everyone has a great holiday shopping season!

HEY GUYS, YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. IF IT SEEMS LIKE TO IS TO GOOD OF A DEAL TO BE TRUE THEN IT MOST LIKELY IS! THE BUY NEEDS TO TAKE HIS HEAD OUT OF THE CLOUDS. STOP BLAMING EBAY FOR SOMETHING THEY CAN'T CONTROL. AS FOR TIFFANY & CO. THEY NEED TO GO AFTER THE PEOPLE MAKING THE KNOCK OFFS.

I am a former powerseller on eBay.

I have contacted eBay on more than one occasion to get them to stop allowing fake jewelry to be touted as the real thing. EBay's response has consistently been that they do not control the listing - the buyer does. They won't even do a thing when they have been told that it's fraud.
I sell fine jewelry - the real thing. I also own a jewelry store. I can't sell on eBay because eBay won't police it's site. It's become a site that caters to scam artists and thieves.

Some of you guys have it all wrong. Ebay doesn't have the seller's interest at heart, it has its own interests at heart (ie, profit). If it goes around cancelling every auction that is for a truly counterfeit item, think of all the revenue it loses! Listing fees, Gallery fees, Subtitle fees, Final Value fees, etc., etc. There is a HUGE market of counterfeit goods on Ebay, and eliminating all those auctions would seriously hurt Ebay's bottom line. I'm definitely not defending them, I'm just telling it like it is.

eBay is only concerned about profits. I don't understand, with all of the technology available, how they can't come up with an easy verification system. As a seller, I wouldn't mind filling out a certificate of authenticity to go with my item. It could have all of my contact information on it. Two weeks ago, I sold one of my old Coach bags and happily gave that kind of information to interested buyers. By doing so, the sale went great. eBay could do this, but they don't care. Right now, they are double charging sellers who paid their invoices with PayPal. Ebay is still charging for fees that have already been paid. They will NOT help any of the sellers that I personally know of. eBay is being very shortsighted. Plus, PayPal isn't dependable in helping you, either. They will pitch you right back to eBay, who acts like they don't even know PayPal. Which I find ironic because eBay OWNS THEM! Everyone I know is dropping eBay and switching to their own sites and Etsy.com. If I were Tiffany's (or Coach, or Kate Spade, or Shabby Chic, or Burberry), I would file a class action suit. The knockoff imports from Hong Kong are awful. eBay doesn't CARE!

It is very disheartening to receive so many counterfeit products from that site. Frankly, if your looking to get name-brand merchandise you might as well pay retail. Mostly because when I'm looking at a namebrand, I want its quality.

I recently purchased South Park DVDs on Ebay from what appeared to be a reputable seller. He had only sold previously gift items such as toy cars and collectables, so he didn't look like a power seller that sells counterfeit items. I'm an avid Ebayer so I know what to look out for. Long story short, he stated that he mailed the items out on a certain date and 3 weeks later after I entered dispute resolution with him, the package arrived from China in an international overnight package. When I opened the DVDs, they were clearly Chinese (it had English and Chinese letters) which appeared to be a counterfeit set of DVDs. The DVDs work, but now we are owners of what are most likely counterfeit, illegal items.

I am going to notify Ebay to this to ensure that others don't buy what appears to be counterfeit items from this seller. How was Ebay supposed to know that what was listed was counterfeit? There was a picture of the box set, and the picture showed the correct DVD name, language and such. The only way Ebay can know about this problem is if buyers notify them. They should only be held liable once a buyers notified them and they do not kick that seller off of Ebay. They shouldn't have to check every item for sale to make sure it's not counterfeit.

There are many buyers out there that just don't know what they are looking at. I am an avid Ebay user both as a buyer and a seller. I have purchased items that cost upwards of $500 and have sold items similar in cost. It should be up to the consumer to educate themselves on counterfeit items. I'm pretty sure we all grew up with the saying "if it's too good to be true, it probably is". I feel as though I know what to look for because I've educated myself on the item and I can easily spot fakes because of this. Do your homework people, not up to Ebay to do it for you.

Tiffany needs more comprehension of the problem and fewer lawyers. A better approach for Tiffany would be to make further use of eBay's existing Verified Rights Owner (VERO) Program to report listings showing fake Tiffany items, at which point eBay can pull the plug on the problem item. If they have a problem with eBay's response time there, they can take that up as a more-specific issue; this blanket lawsuit attempt will give lawyers much to do, but make Tiffany look naive at best, and abusive at worst.

As for _how_ anyone could be expected to authenticate a Tiffany item based solely on a picture and a description, the best authority there would be Tiffany themselves. Perhaps they could provide an authentication of the item by a Tiffany dealer before the eBay listing goes up, giving a certification number for future reference by both buyer and seller. If Tiffany is concerned about the number of fakes out there, they would be better served by authenticating their own products, not by trying to close down the market. It's unlikely that someone will want to buy a Tiffany item now if selling it later will be such a headache.

I don't think that there is a practical method or procedure to verify the authenticity of items on eBay prior to sale. The seller submits the listing with a photo(s) - unless it is fairly obvious you won't be able to determine if the item listed is a counterfeit. Labels, tags, logos, etc. are not reliable as counterfeiters can copy these too.

I have purchased outerwear for skiing on eBay. You have to have a reasonable idea of what you are bidding on. Some items appear to be so underpriced that I immediately suspect they may be counterfeit - and I don't bid.

EBay may remove items when notified by a big company, but they do NOTHING when notified by the rank and file members. I notified everyone from their lowest person all the way up to the CEO that one user was selling hundreds of counterfeit items including Armani suits with pocket flaps (They NEVER have pocket flaps so each user would be ripped off for about $800), and other high-end apparel items.
EBay did nothing to the user despite 10-15 letters. I did report it to the companies that were being harmed, and eventually their items were removed, but the user continues to this day to sell hundreds of knockoffs, just of other companies.

The fact that scam artists try to sell on eBay is no more caused by eBay than a crook placing a classified in the local newspaper. Buyers make purchases routinely over the internet that are sight unseen from many sources. Are these reckless transactions? No, because there are agencies that will act in the buyers' behalf when a merchant is deceitful.

Requiring eBay to police sellers remotely to prevent a crook from listing in the first place is like trying to prevent human nature - won't happen and if eBay tried, the attempt would be effective. The issue is the inaction of eBay to react to buyer complaints and ban offending sellers from the web site when the eveidence is overwhelming. I had issues with a Power Seller giving my payment information to a third-party. I spent hours trying to have eBay address the issue with the seller. eBay would not intervene or even investigate. They do not want to "bite the had that feeds them." Their attitude is that eBay is not making money from the buyer, only the seller. This is a very short sighted view. Power Sellers only become Power Sellers when there are willing buyers.

Until eBay actively investigates and takes action against sham sellers on buyer complaints, I will not buy on eBay. eBay does not respect both side of the transactions. And if eBay will not listen to a large company such as Tiffany, what leverage does the average buyer have?

Although it may not be possible for eBay staff to validate the authenticity of every item sold on eBay, it is possible for them to authenticate the identify of people who open accounts to do business using their site and that of Paypal.

For whatever reason they have decided not to do so to any great extent which leaves the gates wide open for scammers to sell and buy items with little chance of ever being caught.

Good for Tiffany. They've spent millions in marketing to convince people to pay $15,000 for a $1500 ring, so they should be able to protect that investment.

I know a trademark holder is required to "vigorously defend" its trademark if infringement is discovered. So, at least regarding trademarked items, it seems to me if someone discovers a fake on eBay, it would be a service to everyone for the discoverer to report it to the trademark holder who then has the responsibility, right, and power to deal with it. I am no legal expert, so I have no idea if eBay has any secondary responsibility. I would argue, though, if Tiffany knows this is a problem, Tiffany should be able to demonstrate that they participate in eBays VERO program and also that they have informed eBay of fakes multiple times for cupability to shift to eBay. In my opinion, if Tiffany is interested in defending their trademark, it is up to them to persue the real offenders.

Ebay is basically the world's largest fencing/counterfit goods operation at this point. I purchase a "guaranteed" lobby card a couple of years ago - it was nothing but a bad color copy. The image they showed wasn't the same. When I notified ebay, their response was "sorry, not our problem". Mad as hell, I started to do some research to see how this could happen and found out not only was it happening with ebay's blessing... but it was rampant on the site. Items deliberatly mislabeled, fake pictures, forgeries, and worse - all with ebay doing nothing when notified. I've even seen numerous "lottery" listings (where 20 people all bid 20 dollars for a 200 dollar item but only one gets it, the rest get somethig worth a dollar) even those are illegal or regulated in a lot of places. Lottery listings are even against ebays own rules but they won't stop them. Why? They make money off them.

At this point the only thing I'd ever buy there might be an old book I'm looking for - and even then I'd rather go to Amazon since they actually protect the customers.

If Tiffany needs help for their court case I can vouch from experience that ebay lawyers do not "quickly remove fraudulent items when notified by trademark holders" as you mention in your article. About 2 years ago I sold a signed watercolor to a dealer for $100.00cdn. To my utter shock the watercolor turned up on ebay with a different signature. The original signature was erased and replaced with a forged signature of none other than that of Picasso) The watercolor was already at 7,000us with reserve met on ebay at the time. The seller also used my name in his description of the item as the person he said he bought it from. I contacted ebay to ask that they quickly remove this item and the response I got at the time is that ebay was not responsible for checking items put for sale on their site. I wrote back to the ebay lawyers telling them that if they did not remove this item I would bring them to court because the seller was damaging my reputation by using my name to sell a fraudulent Picasso. They then agreed to remove the fake item from ebay but this proved to me beyond any doubt that ebay does not remove fraudulent items because they do not take responsibility for what people sell on their site.

It's simple. eBay cannot be an expert at identifying every fake item sold as real. If the seller insists to eBay that the item is real, what's eBay going to do next? Drive to the guy's house?

A flea market is is different since vendors can be supervised by management.

Where I live, for example, it's common to see parked cars lined up for a mile on certain streets that are all for sale. People looking for a used car cruise down on the weekends and each car has a sign in the window to contact the owner. (There is occasionally vandalism, as you might expect!)

If the seller has somehow misrepresented the car - let's say a clocked odometer - is the city liable if the tranasaction occured in the street?

We know the counterfeter commited a crime, but Tiffany wants to sue everyone. I hope they lose. Caveat emptor.

I can't trust anyone on eBay because it does not do even the most basic of background checks on it's sellers. I purchased a Gameboy advance game from an ebay member who lived in the US, it was only a bit below MSRP. Whats the problem right?

When I get the game, the package has been shipped from china and the cartidge manufacturer is "Nintondo". I reported the issue and the eBay agent didn't seem to understand that I was defrauded because I got a counterfeit item. When I told him the cartridge did work, he closed the dispute.

If eBay did a better job of verifying sellers, atleast issues like this could be turned over to local police, rather than their ineffective dispute resolution group.

I recently tried to list an old poster of Tiffany (remember her from the 80's? I think she was last seen on some weight loss show) and eBay wouldn't let me do it. They're using AUTOMATED KEYWORD SEARCHES for that and for a number of other things (don't use the word "cash" or the words "Western Union" in your auctions). Of course there are many cases where the keyword searches catch stuff other than what was intended, but eBay is determined to have as few employees as it can get away with. If you don't believe that, try finding a phone number or getting to a person to resolve a customer issue.

If eBay loses the case they'll have rampant keyword searches and more intrusive ID requirements for sellers. Ebay has been struggling a bit lately; they've had to offer one listing-fee "sale" after another (free galleries currently) because they did too many price increases and have what is now an unsustainable pricing structure, even though they're a monopoly of sorts and determined to stay that way. The consumer-spending slump isn't helping, either.

As for counterfeits, don't forget that many come from Asia and many buyers knowingly buy them. Sellers are often expats trying to live in places like Bangkok where traditional jobs (like teaching English) don't pay that well.

Well, this explains why I recently had trouble listing some 1989 Bowman Tiffany baseball cards. It took eBay 3 weeks to resolve my issue and allow me to list the baseball cards. Which reminds me, they never told me exactly why they were getting bounced.

To those of you saying eBay doesn't protect the buyer very well, I can promise that if the result of this mess causes eBay to lose money, they'll make it up by charging sellers more money (because they always do)... which will inevitably trickle down to the buyers. The only one eBay truly protects is eBay.

And Tiffany cares why? The people buying Tiffany items on eBay are not the same people that will buy these items from Tiffany or a 'legitimate' store, so it really is not cutting into their profits.

Tiffany is merely doing what many other American corps. are doing. Sue another corporation for copyright / trademark / patent infringement to boost their languishing profits. Because hey, if your company can't cut it just sue someone else for being 'unfair' or 'mean'.

No wonder China and India are turning into economic hegemonies and the US poverty rate is increasing.

I am not aware of any bank in the country where you can open an account under a phoney name and address and collect money or any city or state that will allow you to obtain a business license with bogus credentials yet eBay appears to allow this to occur every day.

This is a business decision that eBay makes and they should be held accountable for it.

I remember seeing the "Tiffany Lamps" on Ebay. Being a stain glass person, I thought what fool would believe & bid on a Tiffany lamp with a starting bid of a penny, 9.99 & 19.99. PT Barnum said "there's a sucker born every minute and unfortunately Ebay cultivates the problem. Oh by the way there were lots of suckers buying that day. It might be that Ebay is just to big to control the fraud or care.

So far, I have not had any bad encounters on ebay, and I have even purchased some expensive things. However, I probably do a lot more looking than buying. I am constantly amazed at the listings. For example, I did a search for ipod shuffle or something to that effect and there were tons of listed that showed a picture of the Apple ipod shuffle, described it (at least in the heading) as an ipod, and yet buried deep in the describption is the notation "This is not an Apple product." Of course, the tip off was that the "ipod" was listed for about $19, but I guess some folks would fall for it. There are so many other examples too, where they list or describe things using a trademark, like sellers claiming to sell Louis Vuitton bags, etc.

lol @ tiffanys.

Ebay has another problem that is just as big as people selling fraud merchandise. And that is people selling stolen merchandise.

Tiffany's knows Ebay can't verify the authenticity of the items listed. They want all Tiffany products off Ebay so they can sell more new ones. 27% of the items were real.

Tiffany's needs to go after the counterfeiters, not Ebay. But, that doesn't serve the purpose of closing down the secondary market.

This is anti-consumer.

Ebay suspended me from listing anything for 6 months after I tried to list a pair of Tiffany knot earrings. I personally bought the earrings, so I was certain of their authenticity. Ebay was impossible to deal with. No one to speak too, it was ridiculous. I have since stopped using Ebay.

I love E-bay and everything about it. People have choices. If I want to buy something. let me buy it. If I go to Tiffany's jewelry store, which I have and spend $$ on jewelry, that belongs to my wife. If she wants to sell it, will Tiffany take it back, where can I sell it. I have had original Tiffany Jewelry bought at Tiffany's and E-bay told me it was reported fake by Tiffany??? There is something wrong with this.

My name is Juan, I love America. What a country. I love the free enterprise. I come to this country and sell all my countrys silver, my cousins in TJ work at Tiffany make items I sell. What a deal. Looks good. I have another cousin in TJ Rolex factory and brand name purses. We have it all. See you at the Flea Markets Via La FLea Markets!!!!

Had issue with eBay/PayPal - bought a coin, PCGS said was counterfit and seller stated PCGS was biased and refused to refund my money. Filed claim with PayPal and they sided with the seller, lucky I bought with a credit card that honored my complaint. Buyer beware with eBay or PayPal - even high feedback does not mean the seller was not taken or driven by greed.

It is not just Ebay that has problems like this.

I ordered a DVD set from Amazon.com and it turned out to be a counterfit set.

I always pay with a credit card or PayPal so I can get my money back if it turns out to be a poor purchase. I also am careful to only buy from sellers that have good ratings.

My 15 yr old twin daughters asked for black North Face Denali jackets for Christmas. I wasted time buying "New North Face Denali jackets with tags" on Ebay, because they were counterfeit. I let my daughters see them the day they arrived and they knew the jackets weren't real! They said the fleece was different as well as thinner. My girls were right! I took a jacket to REI and was told it was a fake. I took it to the North Face store in Seattle and was told it was a "definite counterfeit--very well done--but still counterfeit". The seller had 100% positive feedback -- I'm convinced the buyers don't know they are buying knockoffs, or they don't care. The seller still had about 15 of these jackets for auction, yet they are hard to find in the local stores, and they sales clerks say the black ones never go on sale. Ebay could care less. PayPal customer disservice is a joke. This was a good learning experience. I will NEVER trust Ebay.