eBay to Appeal French Court Ruling
Last week eBay Inc. was ordered by a French court to pay nearly 40 million Euros to fashion company LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA. In the suit, LVMH claimed to have been hurt by the sale of knockoff bags, clothes, and perfume on eBay. The court ruled that eBay had not taken the necessary measures to prevent the sale of the counterfeit goods on its site, ordering eBay to pay 16.4 million Euros ($25.6 million U.S.) to Louis Vuitton Malletier, 19.28 million Euros ($30.17 million U.S.) to Christian Dior and 3.192 million Euros ($5 million U.S.) to the perfume brands.

This week, David Pride, the vice president for eBay Trust & Safety, said that eBay invests millions of dollars (eBay pegs the exact number at $20 million each year) into combating the problem of counterfeits and will continue to do so going forward. According to the auction giant, in 2007, across all eBay sites around the world, over 2 million potentially counterfeit listings were removed and eBay also suspended over 50,000 sellers who may have been attempting to sell fake goods.

In his public announcement concerning the recent court ruling, Pride said, "eBay will continue to fight against counterfeits, but we will not accept outdated attempts to restrict unfairly the Internet to the detriment of our Community. We will continue to fight for consumer value through e-commerce, and we will be appealing the ruling in France."

Gmail and eBay Fight Phishing
EBay and PayPal have collaborated with Google's Gmail to help protect consumers against fraudulent e-mails and phishing attacks. Using technology called DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) e-mail authentication, Google says it is able to prevent the delivery of fraudulent eBay and PayPal messages, which in turn protects Gmail, eBay and PayPal customers worldwide. Sellers using Gmail for their eBay and PayPal accounts should already be receiving fewer, if any, eBay phishing scams, according to the companies.

PayPal and eBay are two of the most spoofed brands in the world. Currently, McAfee ranks PayPal (Email ID PP0211) and eBay (New Unpaid Item Message) as second and third in their top 10 phishing exploits list for July 8, 2008. PayPal (Notification of limited account access) is ranked number five, and PayPal (Warning Notification) is number 10 on the list.

eProvider Offers SaaS Shops with eBay Integration
eProvider, an e-commerce hosting provider, recently launched a new solution for small- and medium-sized companies, offering three different shop types in a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. The changes made to eProvider's service lets businesses set up their online shop with the choice of more than 100 configurable and professionally designed templates. Merchants can also take advantage of integrated features for e-mail marketing and integration with eBay, Google Product Search and Shopping.com. Payment options include Google Checkout, PayPal, and Worldpay. EProvider plans start at $19.99 per month, up to $79.99 per month. A free trial is currently available on the eProvider Web site.

E-Commerce Tools Round-Up
Looking for online selling tools? This week alternative auction site iOffer announces new features, Winbuyer's widget lets you showcase price comparisons at your site and Digby has a new mobile commerce platform.

The Price is Right: WinBuyer Widget
The WinBuyer Partner Program is designed for online store owners wanting to offer customers a way to comparison shop from their own pages. While some sellers may be concerned about showing their potential customers a competitor's offering, if you are offering the lowest price, the WinBuyer widget serves as an advertisement for your merchandise.

Merchants customize the widget to show visitors other Web shops offering the same item, but at prices higher than their own. If the customer uses the widget and goes off the site to buy, e-tailers can still earn lead-based revenue from those shoppers who would have otherwise left the site without earning the e-biz owner anything.

After creating an account and customizing the WinBuyer widget, Web shop owners and merchants simply copy and paste a line of pre-generated JavaScript code directly into their own site. Affiliate earnings are paid on a monthly basis through PayPal.

The More the Merrier: Group Offers
Alternative auction site iOffer recently launched a new feature called iOffer's group offers, that lets buyers send a single offer to multiple sellers on matching or similar items. The first seller to accept the offer wins the buyer's business. Another new iOffer feature, not to be confused with group offer, is bundle offers that lets buyers send one offer price for multiple items from the same seller in a store.

Digby's Mobile Commerce Platform
Mobile commerce service provider Digby announced a new m-commerce software platform. Called Powered by Digby, this platform creates and manages the branded mobile store on behalf of the e-tailer. Powered by Digby is available for BlackBerry smartphones, Windows Mobile smartphones and mobile browsers. iPhone and Android are expected to be available during the last half of 2008.