In a victory for luxury fashion brands a French court has ordered the auctioning giant eBay to pay a whopping £32m in damages to the LVMH Group for allowing the sale of counterfeit goods on its site.

LVMH, the fashion group that owns Louis Vuitton among other labels, sued the online shopping website for allowing fake goods to be sold as genuine designer items.  The fashion brands understood to have been forged in the case include Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Givenchy. 

The Paris court ruled that eBay had not done enough to prevent the sale of fake handbags, clothes, perfumes and other items on its French website. In a breakdown of the ruling, eBay must pay Christian Dior Couture £15m in damages, £14m to Louis Vuitton Malletier and a further £3m compensation to several perfume brands.

However, after the judgement eBay vowed to fight the decision.  A company spokesperson said in a statement:  "If counterfeits appear on our sites we take them down swiftly. We believe that this ruling represents a loss not only for us but for consumers and small businesses selling online, therefore we will appeal."

The ruling follows a similar victory for fashion brands in the French courts last month, when a judge ordered eBay to pay £16,000 in compensation to Hermes for the sale of fake items. Fiona Raisbeck

Picture: Louis Vuitton, autumn/winter 2008/9