May 2020

Beatrice Martinet writes “Coty v. Amazon: A Missed Opportunity to Define Online Marketplace’s Liability for Trademark Infringement?” for the Daily Journal

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On April 2, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued a landmark decision in Coty v. Amazon concerning the liability of internet intermediaries for intellectual property infringement. The decision was expected to answer the essential question of whether an online marketplace may be deemed liable for selling infringing goods on behalf of a third party seller. While the Court held that Amazon was not directly liable for trademark infringement for storing and shipping third party products, the Court, limited by the narrow scope of the question referred to it, lost an opportunity to fully define Amazon’s potential liability for trademark infringement. However, this decision could lead to a substantial evolution in the behavior of online marketplace towards infringing products sold on their website.

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