EBay is sunk in lawsuits: LVMH, Skype... Who else?

LVMH Group had charged eBay with brand counterfeiting for allowing keywords for some LVMH brands to appear in advertisements. A French court has found eBay guilty and fined the online auction site €80,000 (US$118,000). In addition to the fine, the tribunal forbids eBay from continuing the activity and will impose a €1,000 fine for each infringement. Moreover, the tribunal will publish the rulings in three French or international newspapers and on the eBay.fr and eBay.com Web sites. "This decision gives credence to the requests made by Parfums Christian Dior, Kenzo, Givenchy and Guerlain," LVMH said in a statement. But the ruling, made by the Paris Tribunal de Grande Instance, is the opposite of a recent one made by a Belgium court, eBay said in return. In that case eBay won, on appeal, in a similar suit brought by Ralph Lauren, it said.

Another lawsuit was filed against eBay Inc. by the founders of Skype. This could spoil eBay’s $2-billion deal to sell a controlling stake in the Internet phone company to a group of private investors. The lawsuit contends that former Joost chief executive Michelangelo Volpi used confidential information to sell a 65% stake in Skype to a private equity consortium. The deal was announced by eBay about two weeks ago. The lawsuit alleges that Volpi leaked Joost’s company secrets and accuses him of “civil conspiracy.” Volpi had a fiduciary duty to protect the information, the lawsuit charges, and not “use it for his own benefit.” eBay bought Skype for $2.6 billion in 2005. It’s been reported that Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis want to buy Skype back, but their bid has been unsuccessful. Earlier this week, the founders sued the investors and eBay in U.S. District Court in Northern California, charging copyright infringement.