eBay leads campaign for getting right to sell luxury goods in Europe

As eBay told European lawmakers over 75% of a million people signed an online petition demanding changes to regulations enabling luxury brand makers restrict selling their products online. Such luxury brands, like Tiffany & Co., Louis Vuitton, and Rolex say their brands are devalued by sales on ignoble auction websites like eBay.

The European Commission is amending rules on so-called vertical agreements between producers and retailers. Existing guidelines are losing force in May 2010. The current rules let manufacturers require merchants to have a brick-and-mortar store before they are allowed to sell their merchandise online, while imposing stricter sales regulations on websites.

eBay claims such limitations are an "unfair restraint" on the right to buy and sell goods in the European Single Market and are motivated on luxury brand owners' desire to artificially inflate prices by eliminating competition from online sellers.

eBay's campaign is spearheaded by London MEP Mary Honeyball in the European Parliament.

eBay has confronted luxury goods makers many times earlier over the auctioning of counterfeit products on its website. Last year, eBay was ordered to pay £30.6m in damages to the handbag group LVHM over fakes.