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Louis Vuitton to eBay: Knock It Off!

The next time you’re thinking about placing a bid on an item on eBay, you might want to double check its authenticity. In a recent lawsuit, eBay is being fined about $63 million by LVMH Möet Hennessy Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior for selling counterfeit goods.

Louis Vuitton, known for its monogram leather goods, accused the online seller of not making sure that all of its products were real. According to the Wall Street Journal, eBay spends about $20 million a year employing 2,000 people to find and remove fake items from the website – guess that wasn’t enough.

This isn’t the first time eBay has dealt with a major lawsuit on bogus goods. In 2004, Tiffany & Co. sued eBay, claiming that only 5% of its products on the website are real. The trial is still pending.

Finding designer duds for a sweet price can seem like a steal at first. But you are always bidding at your own risk. Not all is lost when you don’t end up with the real thing, though. EBay has a buyer protection program which refunds you a small fraction of the money you paid if the item you buy isn’t want you thought it’d be.

–Jennifer Tse