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Posted By: davidcycleback

It would be impossible for eBay to authenticate everything on their website. In fact I would submit that, other than any items eBay sells itself, it is impossible for eBay to authenticate any thing on eBay. I currently have for sale on eBay a old MastroNet auction catalog. There is no way eBay can determine with 100% certainty that this catalog is authentic. While the item is authentic and I received it directly from MastroNet, how is eBay to know that I haven't pasted a Xerox copy of the cover to a National Geographic?

eBay should take due care against fraud and fakes, but the idea that eBay should authenticate everything is silly. Though I must admit that the idea of eBay taking a percentage of the take for the sales of fakes and frauds is hard to stomach.

In fact, part of Tiffany's contention is that, as eBay takes a percentage of every sale, they should take more responsibility towards authentication. Another point is that, according to Tiffany at least, the vast majority of Tiffany jewelry on eBay is fake. eBay takes out Yahoo and google 'word key' ads-- where if you type 'Tiffany jewelry' into google you will get an ad link to tiffany products on eBay. Tiffany feels eBay is not only wrongly using their trademarked name with these ads but, more importantly, is adverting fake Tiffany merchandice.