The General Advocate of the TEU exempts Amazon from liability for the sale of counterfeit products

BRUSSELS, June 2 (EUROPE PRESS) -

The General Advocate of the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled out this Thursday that a platform like Amazon has responsibility for the sale of counterfeit products by third parties, as it is considered an intermediary in Internet purchases.

The case responds to the complaint of the French shoe brand Louboutin, which denounces that advertisements for shoes with red soles, Louboutin's distinctive mark, appear regularly on Amazon and that, in the opinion of the manufacturer, refer to products that are marketed without its consent.

In his opinion, the Polish attorney general Maciej Szpunar states that Amazon markets products, but in this case it plays only an intermediary role and "cannot be held directly responsible for infringements of the rights of trademark owners committed on its platform through offers of third parties".

In his opinion, direct responsibility can only be attributed to the operator of an electronic commerce platform when it uses a sign identical to a brand, while in the case of Amazon its advertisements always specify whether the products are marketed by third-party sellers or directly by the platform, says Spuznar.

"The mere fact that the advertisements of Amazon and those of third-party sellers coexist cannot lead a normally informed and reasonably attentive user to perceive the signs included in the advertisements of third-party sellers as an integral part of Amazon's commercial communication" , the attorney general stressed.