The Financial Times newspaper reported Wednesday that French luxury brand-owners Louis Vuitton (LVMH) and Christian Dior Couture have sued eBay for 37 million euros, or about $47 million. eBay is already facing a lawsuit by Tiffany in the United States.

eBay has a Verified Rights Owner program, known as VeRO, to help Intellectual Property owners report violating listings, but some IP owners say eBay is not doing enough to fight the problem of counterfeit items on the site.

eBay spokesperson Hani Durzy said on Thursday, "We all have a shared interest in battling the issue of counterfeits, and success is dependent on joint efforts, trust, and cooperation with brand owners. So naturally we are disappointed that LVMH and Dior no longer appear to be interested in cooperating with eBay and instead chose to file legal action against us. We believe that this suit is nothing more than an attempt to abdicate their own responsibility to police their brands."

The Financial Times said LVMH has already successfully sued Google over allegations that it had provided links to sites that sold counterfeit products, and said Google lost its appeal in June and was fined 300,000 euros.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/69f7381a-48cc-11db-a996-0000779e2340.html