Advertising with eBay verification seal unfair?

Is an eBay shop operator permitted to advertise with the slogan "eBay verified member" granted by the auction platform – and what essential particulars must a seller provide when offering contact lenses online? These are the questions with which the Regional Court (LG) Essen had to deal.

In the present dispute, a competitor took action against an online merchant of contact lenses and costume contact lenses. The shop operator offered contact lenses called "Gelbe Katze" online. In doing so, he only stated the price of the lenses including value added tax and shipping costs. The online merchant provided no further particulars regarding the contact lenses.

Moreover, the shop operator advertised under the heading "Trader Information" with the symbol "verified eBay member". The merchant acquired this seal from eBay by participating in a verification procedure offered by the auction house until approximately mid-2012 and was then confirmed by eBay as a "verified member". Meanwhile, eBay has abolished the seal "verified member" and the associated verification procedure and replaced it with a different procedure.

The competitor sent the online merchant a cease-and-desist letter following a test purchase they had conducted. According to its view, the continued advertising of the verification logo was misleading because this verification was no longer carried out by eBay. Furthermore, the online merchant of contact lenses had failed to provide the required mandatory information when selling optical goods.

Court's decision

By means ofjudgment of 04.07.2014 – Az. 45 O 8/14 – the Regional Court (LG) Essen decided that the use of the eBay seal "verified eBay member" constitutes a misleading commercial practice.

The average consumer is given the impression through the use of the verification seal that the seller currently holds the stated status, even though the corresponding status has since been abolished and eBay thereby clearly no longer wishes to stand by the originally conducted verification. In this respect, it is irrelevant whether the shop operator originally obtained the corresponding status with justification. This is misleading.

Furthermore, the merchant was ordered to cease distributing contact lenses without providing, as a minimum, the essential characteristics of the vision aids, namely the refractive power, the period of use, the material and the size of the lenses.

Conclusion

Advertising with the verification seal "verified member" no longer granted by eBay is contrary to competition law and should be discontinued. Furthermore, when distributing contact lenses, it is urgently necessary to provide information on the refractive power, the period of use, the material and the size of the lenses.