eBay and PayPal hit with lawsuit over “counterfeit” goods
Wimo Labs, the manufacturer and distributor of Lunatik iPhone cases and protection systems for the Apple Watch, has filed a lawsuit against eBay, PayPal and various eBay sellers, alleging that they “knowingly and deliberately facilitate, proliferate and profit from the ongoing sale of counterfeit and fake products on ebay.com”. The California-based R. Rex Parris Law Firm and co-counsel Deborah A. Klar filed the lawsuit on behalf of Wimo Labs on Thursday (20 August).
In a statement posted on its own website, the law firm said: “The detailed lawsuit asserts that because eBay and PayPal cannot continue to enjoy the enormous profits derived from the proliferation of counterfeit and fake products sold on the eBay website if the intentional infringing sellers are excluded, eBay’s policies and practices are designed to, among other things, (i) promote the unlawful activities of its unauthorized sellers by soliciting eBay buyers to purchase fake products knowingly using listings that infringe on registered trademarks, (ii) conceal and protect the identity of the sellers who are responsible for intentional trademark infringement on the eBay website, and (iii) ignore evidence of the unlawful activities by its unauthorized sellers.
“According to the Complaint, to avoid liability, eBay’s policies and practices are designed to manufacture the false optic that it does not know or suspect the rampant and on-going advertising on ebay.com of fake products that infringe on the trademarks’ of legitimate rights holders, such as Plaintiff.”
The law firm added: “Since February 2013, Plaintiff sent eBay more than 5,557 Notices of Claimed Infringement (“NOCI”) by at least 2,200 individual ebay.com registered sellers. The Complaint alleges that given that eBay repeatedly has been informed by Plaintiff and others that iPhone phone cases on ebay.com that mimic the design of Plaintiff’s authentic products offered in materials and in colors never produced by Plaintiff are counterfeit, eBay knew, or willfully ignored that thousands of ebay sellers have been and are continuing to be engaged in the offer and sale of obvious Fake Lunatik Products on ebay.com. In addition, the Complaint provides specific instances where eBay buyers have been directly solicited by eBay to purchase obvious Fake Lunatik Products.”
The sellers listed in the complaint include a number of companies based in China, which does have a reputation for having a thriving counterfeit goods sector.
Click here to view a full PDF copy of the lawsuit complaint.
UPDATE on 26 August 2015
Ryan Moore, Senior Manager, Global Corporate Affairs & Communications with eBay, sent the following statement to Post&Parcel last night (25 August) regarding the Wimo Labs complaint: “We have received a copy of the complaint and are reviewing it.
“That said, counterfeits are not welcome on eBay and we have a number of sophisticated tools, policies and other measures in place to keep them off our site.
“Courts–including the Second Circuit and more recently, the Central District of California–have repeatedly recognized that eBay’s efforts are comprehensive and comply with the law.
“The injection of inflammatory – and baseless – RICO conspiracy allegations into what is a trademark law dispute is especially inappropriate. We will vigorously defend our practices in court.”
