Auction site eBay has been ordered by a French court to pay almost €40 million (£31.7 million) to luxury goods group LVMH for failing to block the sales of counterfeit goods on its site.

EBay has also been stopped from selling a number of perfumes under LVMH’s brands, which the court said breached the selective distribution agreements that LVMH has in place to control sales of the goods.

The e-commerce giant said it would appeal the rulings, saying that the reaching implications from the court’s decision would affect consumer choice and how goods are sold online.

In the US, eBay is facing further legal action from Tiffany and last month was forced to pay €20,000 (£15,825) to Hermès over fake bags that had been sold on the site.

EBay assured that it was trying to tackle the problem of counterfeit goods, investing more than US$20 million (£10.1 million) a year to curb the issue.

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