BRUSSELS — U.S. online retail giant Amazon is not liable for unwittingly stocking trade mark infringing goods for third-party sellers, but should be diligent in checking whether products are legal, an adviser to Europe's top court said on Thursday. The adviser was giving his opinion on a case that pits Amazon against U.S. cosmetics company Coty. The dispute is one of the many battles between luxury goods companies seeking to preserve their exclusivity and branding and online platforms such as Amazon and eBay fighting against online sales curbs. It also raises the question of the scope of online platforms' responsibility for products sold, or content transmitted, on their sites. The opinion from Manuel Campos Sanchez-Bordona, advocate general at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), came in a case involving Coty's German subsidiary, which took Amazon to a German court for stocking Coty's Davidoff perfume for third party sellers.

Source: New York Times November 28, 2019 09:35 UTC