Courts now have the power to order online retailers to stop such infringements and prevent similar incidents in the future.

The decision stems from years of wrangling between L’Oreal and eBay. L’Oreal claims that eBay is liable for the sale of counterfeit goods and of goods not intended for sale in the EU, known as parallel imports.

L’Oreal also complained that eBay used Google AdWords to direct users to the products on the eBay site. This fact was key to the decision of the EU Court. The Court ruled that E-tailers will not be liable if all they do is allow third party users to display infringing goods for sale on their site. However, the likes of eBay lose that protection when its involvement is greater and they provide assistance, which would include the use of services such as Google AdWords and optimisation.

However, the judgment also stated that E-Commerce sites would lose their right to the exemption for liability to sellers’ trademark infringements if they quite clearly should have been aware that the sales were unlawful.

Following the decision, national courts will now have the power to order E-Commerce retailers to identify infringing sellers and issue and enforce injunctions stopping sellers from infringing marks further.