Judge tosses Tiffany’s suit against eBay

By Reuters
Posted Sep. 13, 2010 at 1:03 p.m.

A Manhattan federal judge on Monday dismissed Tiffany & Co.’s 6-year-old lawsuit accusing eBay Inc. of allowing the online sale of counterfeit jewelry bearing its name.

U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan on Monday rejected Tiffany’s false advertising claim against eBay.
“Tiffany failed to establish that eBay intentionally set out to deceive the public, much less that eBay’s conduct was of an egregious nature sufficient to create a presumption that consumers were being deceived,” the judge wrote.

On April 1, the federal appeals court in New York had ruled in eBay’s favor on other claims raised by Tiffany. It ordered further review of the false advertising claim.

The case is Tiffany (NJ) Inc. et al v. eBay Inc., U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 04-04607.

Read more about the topics in this post: , ,
 

Companies in this article

eBay

Read more about this company »

3 comments:

  1. Guest Sep. 13, 2010 at 2:38 pm

    U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan is guilty of aiding and abetting in the crime of Counterfeiting of Tiffany Merchandise by Chinese producers further abetted by Ebay.
    This is a Cancer to be excised STAT.
    Ebay is known to have a “Black Budget” , the purpose of which is to ensure that the US Court System does not interfere in any way with Ebay’s Evil.
    Ebay should be the Number One Target in the fight to Rebalance the trade deficit.
    Ebay is responsible for impoverishing Hundreds of THOUSANDS of US households with its CEO’s “Disruptive Innovation Game Plan”.
    Thousands of shady Chinese sellers have moved in, like a Cancer, replacing dedicated, dependable American Sellers who have been (by unending policy changes) thrown out of Ebay, losing thousands of Dollars and a lifestyle that can never be recovered.
    The Courts looked the other way when Ebay broke the law by disregarding the Sherman Act in forcing PayPal only….The Sellers have a right to accept Checks and Money Orders for THEIR Items.
    The Court System will not protect Americans from Corporate abuse.
    The Black Budget has spoken.

  2. John in Glenview Sep. 13, 2010 at 5:07 pm

    I am not quite sure about a Black Budget or eBay’s Evil (although there is a theme for a movie after the one on Facebook comes out), but for most things good eBay can be a scary place. I once worked for a company that eBay bought when they were trying to get into auctioning better goods, but we couldn’t meet their goal of 43.4 items per day with an average value of $517.32 and a sell-though rate of 86.3 percent, adjusted for holidays and weekends. An auction house out of London with 250 years of experience took over the group and is doing quite well now.

    BUT… the problem isn’t that eBay is selling these items, they are only providing a glorified flea market site, and as such I don’t think they are responsible for making sure that what is being sold is true. They are responsible for doing the best they can to get rid of sellers who are thieves, and eBay seems to be a bit lax about that.

    The legal case is not Tiffany’s (or Rolex, or Picasso, or the descendants of any maker of a true antique). It would be best as a class-action suit, but it is hard to find an attorney would try to co-ordinate such an effort.

    As always, BUYER BEWARE!

  3. Corruption Reigns Sep. 15, 2010 at 8:46 pm

    U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan: Bought, paid for, and doing the bidding of his corporate masters! The best justice money can buy…