Legal Precision - Petra Ribbens
31 août 2023
European Union - The European Court of Justice affirms the liability of internet sales platforms for plagiarism offers from third-party sellers: preliminary ruling in case C-148/21 and 184/21 Louboutin vs. Amazon
Is this the end of prolific counterfeit offers on online marketplaces, or… is this the end of certain (unscrupulous) online marketplaces?
On December 22, 2022, the ECJ ruled that Amazon, as the operator of an online marketplace, also uses itself the (Louboutin) trademarks included in the offers of third parties (in this case, a counterfeiter), and is therefore liable for trademark infringements by the counterfeiter.
This is a very comforting ruling for brand owners whose products are frequently the target for counterfeiters, and previously had little or no recourse against online market platforms that would simply either refer complaints about counterfeit offers to the seller-counterfeiters, or delete the infringing offer without making any additional efforts whatsoever.
It is also a menacing ruling for online marketplaces, who can no longer sit in the backseat, and will need to urgently undertake proactive and reactive actions to avoid or at least limit liability.
To read more: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:62021CJ0148