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The cosmetics manufacturer accused eBay of not doing enough to prevent the sales of counterfeit goods on its website. Ebay's triumph is its second significant win in recent weeks, as it also recently won a case against jeweller Tiffany. The jeweller has also said it will appeal the decision.

L'Oreal began taking out legal action against eBay in September 2007. It also has ongoing cases with the auctioneer in France, Germany, Spain and Britain, although none of these courts have ruled on the case yet.

The Belgian court ruled that eBay was not obliged to take action to fight counterfeiting, however eBay spokeswoman Sravanthi Agrawal did stress that the company cooperated with rights owners to tackle the sale of fake goods.

She also said that the company has been clamping down on all cases of counterfeiting notified to it by the companies affected, even though it did not have a legal obligation to do so.