On July 12, 2011 the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) gave its decision in L’Oréal v eBay (C-324/09). The CJEU dealt with inter alia the following issues: (1) the aspects related to the nature of the goods sold by eBay’s users; (2) the liability of eBay in connection with the said sales; (3) the availability of the “hosting provider” defence for eBay; and (4) trade mark owners’ right to obtain injunctions against operators of online marketplaces in order to stop future sales of infringing products through their websites. Even though the actual liability of eBay will have to be established by the UK referring court, the CJEU’s conclusions can already be considered a success for proponents of stricter online trade mark enforcement.
The full paper is available here
