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Belgian court dismisses L'Oreal claims against eBay

Tue Aug 12, 2008 2:58pm EDT

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(Repeats to widen distribution) (Adds comment from L'Oreal in paragraph 6)

BRUSSELS, Aug 12 (Reuters) - A Belgian court on Tuesday dismissed all of the claims of cosmetics maker L'Oreal (OREP.PA) brought against eBay (EBAY.O) over the sale of fake fragrances and cosmetic products on online auction sites, eBay said in a statement.

L'Oreal started legal action in France, Belgium, Germany, Britain and Spain in September 2007, alleging the online auctioneer did not do enough to combat the sale of counterfeits.

None of the other courts have ruled on the case yet.

The Belgian court ruled that eBay was not obliged to take action to fight counterfeiting, but eBay spokeswoman Sravanthi Agrawal stressed that the company cooperated with rights owners to tackle the sale of fake goods. She added that the company clamped down on all cases of counterfeiting notified to it by the firms concerned, even though it did not have a legal obligation to do so.

L'Oreal said in a statement it would appeal against the decision. (Reporting by Antonia van de Velde, Editing by Jan Strupczewski, Will Waterman, Richard Chang)


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