State of Lux

The Wall Street Journal this week reported that a Paris court has found eBay guilty of harming the image of luxury brand Louis Vuitton after the online action site paid to have search terms often associated with counterfeit products directed to their site.

eBay were ordered to pay the hefty sum of  €200,000 ($275,000) in damages to Louis Vuitton and to stop paying the search engines to direct certain key words to the eBay site.

In a subsequent article, WSJ’s Law blog argues whether a similar ruling would have been given in the American courts. Judging by some of the comments on WSJ, the american readership has little faith in the French legal system.