Recent Events in EU Internet Law

摘要

By judgment of June 30, 2008, the French Commercial Court of Paris determined that online auctioneer eBay is not a mere "hosting provider" and cannot benefit from the liability protection adopted by the EU Ecommerce Directive (2000/31/EC). Subsequently, the court found eBay liable for infringing the selective distribution agreements of the French luxury group LVMH, which produces the well-known perfumes of Christian Dior, Kenzo, Givenchy, and Guerlain. Earlier, on June 4, 2008, another French court found eBay guilty of counterfeit for allowing one of its customers to sell a counterfeited Hermes bag. Also in that case, the court ruled that eBay was not only a hosting provider but also an online auction service provider and consequently could not rely on the liability protection of the European Ecommerce Directive (see the August 2008 issue of Journal of Internet Law). This liability protection applies to online service providers that can effectively be considered "hosting providers" and exempts them from liability for illegal content uploaded by their users, provided that they are not aware of any such illegal information uploaded to their systems and that they expeditiously remove or block any illegal information upon becoming aware of the illegal nature.