EBay

Luxury goods firm LVMH, owners of Louis Vuitton and Dior, have filed a lawsuit against eBay contending that most of the products on the site purporting to carry their top brands are fakes.

THE UK's Information Commissioner is to investigate whether eBay are in breach of the Data Protection Act by obstructing the removal of customers' personal details from their website.

EBAY users are warned to exercise particular vigilance in online payment transactions following the emergence of a new high-tech scam that has already claimed several victims. The latest fraud to hit the online marketplace involves the replication of pages from the website eBay recommends for escrow transactions.

THE International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) are calling for a complete ban on the trade in ivory products on eBay - including antiques.

EBAY have posted first quarter net revenues of $1.39bn, just over predictions and 35 per cent up on the first quarter of 2005.

Tiffany the jewellers are suing eBay in a case that challenges the very formula that has made the online giant such a success.

A Susie Cooper vase sold for £3850 on eBay on January 13. The vase, which measures just over 12in (30cm) high, is decorated with a hunter in a loin cloth stalking two deer or ibex close to a stylised tree – an unrecorded design of around 1931 or ’32. Similar pieces are known from a publicity shot taken in the 1930s although most were thought to have been destroyed during a hit on the factory during the Blitz.

An English judge has issued a stern warning to those who knowingly sell fake merchandise on eBay, handing a suspended prison sentence to a woman who sold a counterfeit collectable over the auction website for almost £1000.

EBAY appear to have dropped their ban on the sale of works by Italian designer Fulvio Bianconi.

EBAY’s fourth quarter and year-end results for 2004 were up again – but not as much as expected, leading to a dip in the share price.

EBAY users are being warned to look out for the Second Chance Offer scam that is among the latest frauds to hit the online marketplace. In this ruse, scammers impersonating eBay sellers target disappointed underbidders of high-price lots claiming to offer them the ‘second chance’ to buy the lot.

WEST Midlands Police have arrested three people from Birmingham in connection with the theft of Staffordshire figures from the Antiques for Everyone fair after the items were spotted on eBay.

RELATIVES of one of Italy’s leading 20th century glass designers have launched an assault on the trade in works using his name.

FRAUDSTERS are targeting internet bidders once more with the ‘stolen picture’ and ‘stolen identity’ scams on eBay.

AN Antiques Trade Gazette investigation has raised serious questions over how eBay police their site, questions that remain unanswered after weeks, despite eBay being given ample opportunity to address these concerns.

ONLINE auction giant eBay have announced a record 59 per cent increase in turnover for the first quarter of 2004.

EBAY, the great survivors of the dot-com boom and bust, have again posted a record set of results to complete a remarkable year in which the company reaped revenues of over $2bn. There were 41 million people who have bid, bought or listed on eBay over the past 12 months.

Ebay are warning their users to be vigilant after users of PayPal fell victim to a hi-tech scam in November and December. Many received a replicating virus that, camouflaged as an email from the online payment provider, tried to trick the recipient into sending sensitive information.

DOT-COM giant eBay have registered another set of record results, this time for the third quarter of 2003. With predicted turnover of $515m, the company actually registered revenues of $530.9m for the quarter, an 84 per cent rise on the same period last year.

Online auctioneer eBay will create up to 800 new jobs in Dublin as they expand their European operations. The San Francisco-based company will locate the European headquarters for their PayPal Internet payment unit in west Dublin and will also open a second European customer support centre.