A French court ordered eBay to pay a $61 million fine because counterfeit goods were sold on the auction site. Should eBay be penalized for auctions of counterfeit designer goods?

No way! They are just a website, they dont verify anything really, just your info. This could be the end of e bay, if others follow.

millions of goods are being sold on ebay, it's impossible to keep track of them all, let alone do individual physical checks ... the seller should be penalized, not ebay! ...

No; eBay interactions are risky in-and-of themselves. There are a ridiculous amount of things being bought and sold on there, and to check these things would be ridiculous. I don't even know how they WOULD, besides physically checking each item. Just like something could be damaged, something could be fake. Common sense should protect you.

No, Ebay has no way to verify authenticity of each product sold.

They can't be responsible for each and every item but they have to draw a line somewhere. I keep thinking, If I opened a store and I sold counterfeit goods, I would be responsible. I have some mixed feeelings.... gonna go think some more. ;)

No they shouldn't have to monitor it themselves, because they are not the expert on what is or is not Louie Vuitton. The company I work for has a hired staff that investigates E-Bay and like websites. If they find something the call e-bay and have it taken down. They also ask for counterfeits be sent in to our company so it is kept off the streets.

If I was E-bay I would auction off that judge's personal information.

No. It's up to the user to see if the item is real. Also, $61 million??!! That is bull if it was one person suing.

Not exactly, they didnt force the buyer to buy these things and they didnt force the seller to sell them. The site is there to be used as a middle man, and I think ebay can only do but so much seeing as there are so many people who use the site. Its not up to ebay to check the purchases of a buyer/seller, but if something goes wrong there is a place where the two can go to complain. Its the same situation with Myspace and how all these girls are starting to date drug dealers and act like prostitutes and run away from home...mysapce didnt cause them to do it and doesnt have the ability to check every profofile but has taken the measure where someone can stop this from happening..just as long as someone chooses to be responsible.