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' Ниже - познавательная статья. Краткое содержание. ЕБэй, доходы которого от и-нет торговли составили в прошлом году 279 млн. бкс., не оспаривает факта, что в числе прочего торгует фальшаками и репликами. Аргументация - мы не эксперты в одежде, автомобилях и ювелирке, а всего лишь специалисты в организации торговой площадки. Тиффани сделали контрольную закупку своих драгоценностей и обнаружили, что 3 из 4-х - фэйки))).
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' By Katie Hafner
' NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
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' January 29, 2006
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' SAN FRANCISCO – A year ago Jacqui Rogers, a retiree in southern Oregon who dabbles in vintage costume jewelry, went on eBay and bought 10 butterfly brooches made by Weiss, a well-known manufacturer of high-quality costume jewelry in the 1950s and 1960s.
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' At first, Rogers thought she had snagged a great deal. But when the jewelry arrived from a seller in Rhode Island, her well-trained eye told her the pieces were knockoffs.
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' Even though Rogers received a refund after she confronted the seller, eBay refused to remove hundreds of listings for identical “Weiss” pieces. It said it had no responsibility for the fakes because it was nothing more than a marketplace that links buyers and sellers.
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' That stance is now being challenged by eBay users like Rogers, who are starting to notify other unsuspecting buyers of fakes on the site. And it is being tested by a jewelry seller with far greater resources than Rogers: Tiffany & Co., which has sued eBay for facilitating the trade of counterfeit Tiffany items on the site.
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' If Tiffany wins its case, not only would other lawsuits follow, but eBay's very business model would be threatened. It would be nearly impossible for the company to police a site that now has 180 million members and 60 million items for sale at any one time.
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' While fakes are sold everywhere, the anonymity and reach of the Internet makes it perfect for selling knockoffs. And eBay, the biggest online marketplace, is the center of a new universe of counterfeiting with virtually no oversight.
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' EBay, based in San Jose, argues that it has no obligation to investigate claims of counterfeit merchandise unless the complaint comes from a “rights owner,” a party holding a trademark or copyright. A mere buyer who believes an item is a fake has almost no recourse.
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' “We never take possession of the goods sold through eBay, and we don't have any expertise,” said Hani Durzy, an eBay spokesman. “We're not clothing experts. We're not car experts, and we're not jewelry experts. We're experts at building a marketplace and bringing buyers and sellers together.”
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' Company officials say they do all they can to stop fraud. The company says only a minute share of the items being sold at any given time – 6,000 or so – are fraudulent. But that estimate just reflects cases that are determined by eBay to be confirmed frauds, like when an item is never delivered.
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' Experienced eBay users say the fraud goes well beyond eBay's official numbers, and that counterfeiters easily pass off fakes in hundreds of categories.
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' “EBay makes a lot of money from a lot of small, unhappy transactions,” said Ina Steiner, editor and publisher of AuctionBytes.com, an online newsletter.
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' “If you've lost a few thousand dollars, you might go the extra mile to recover it. But if you've lost $50 or $20, you may never be able to prove your case, and in the meantime eBay has gotten the listing fee and the closing fee on that transaction.” (The company's profits rose 36 percent in the last quarter from the year before, to $279.2 million.)
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' The Tiffany lawsuit, in addition to accusing eBay of facilitating counterfeiting, also contends that it “charges hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees” for counterfeit sales.
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' In 2004, Tiffany secretly purchased about 200 items from eBay in its investigation of how the company was dealing with the thousands of pieces of counterfeit Tiffany jewelry. The company found that three out of four “Tiffany” pieces were fakes.
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' The case is scheduled to go to trial this year, said James Swire, an attorney with Arnold & Porter, a law firm representing Tiffany.
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' The legal question – whether eBay is a facilitator of fraud – is a critical issue that could affect not only eBay's future, but Internet commerce generally, said Thomas Hemnes, a lawyer in Boston who specializes in intellectual property.
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' “If eBay lost, or even if they settled and word got out that they settled, it would mean they would have to begin policing things sold over eBay, which would directly affect their business model,” Hemnes said. “The cost implied is tremendous.”
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' In 2001, eBay won a San Diego court case involving counterfeit sports memorabilia, arguing successfully that while it works to discourage fraudulent deals, it operates more like a flea market where vendors rent stalls than like an auction house that is responsible for the quality of the goods it sells.
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' The judge ruled that even though fake sports items were sold on eBay, the company was not required to ensure their authenticity. A portion of the ruling dealt with the Telecommunications Decency Act, which safeguards interactive service providers from being responsible for “bad acts” committed by third parties.
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' But eBay members like Rogers have no desire to wait for the latest court decision; they say the uncontrolled flood of fakes is driving down the value of authentic goods.
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' For the past few months, Rogers and three women she met on eBay who are also costume jewelry buffs have banded together to track the swindlers they say are operating in their jewelry sector. Her team has reported to eBay more than a thousand jewelry listings they believe to be fakes; only a few have been removed.
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' The women say that by watching the listings they have uncovered a ring of a half-dozen or so counterfeiters who they say supply one another with fake jewelry, conceal the fact that they are buying from one another to boost their seller status, and regularly dole out positive feedback to one another to fool potential buyers.
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' Carrie Pollack of Sudbury, Mass., who is part of Rogers' group, was unaware of the abundance of counterfeit pieces on eBay when she paid $360 for what she thought were genuine pieces of Weiss jewelry. She demanded a refund from the seller, who refused.
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' Pollack said it wasn't until she filed a formal complaint with PayPal, eBay's online payment system, that the seller offered to refund her money.
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' EBay's feedback system, which allows buyers to post negative reviews of bad sellers, is supposed to protect customers like Pollack. Yet all of the alleged counterfeiters had consistently positive ratings.
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' Steiner of AuctionBytes.com said this situation is not uncommon. Buyers and sellers are often reluctant to leave bad reviews, lest their own reputations suffer.
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' EBay does not allow members to contact other potential buyers to warn them of possible fraud. Otherwise, Durzy said, it would be too easy for someone to try to ruin the reputation of a legitimate rival.
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' After the spectacular case in 2000 when a fake Richard Diebenkorn painting was nearly sold for $135,000 on eBay, the company put in place a handful of safeguards like the PayPal buyer protection plan, an improved system for spotting eBay policy violations, and improved detection of fraud in general. But when it comes to counterfeit goods, the problem has worsened.
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' “The majority of things that appear on eBay are fakes,” said Joel Garzoli, an art gallery owner in San Rafael.
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Фальшаки на ЕБэйе(+) -- vovman -- 27.02.06@14:21 (Чит.: 211)