03/02/2020
CURIA - Documents
take measures which contribute, not only to bringing to an end infringements of those rights by users of that
marketplace, but also to preventing further infringements of that kind. Those injunctions must be effective,
proportionate, dissuasive and must not create barriers to legitimate trade.
IV – Costs
Since these proceedings are, for the parties to the main proceedings, a step in the action pending before the
national court, the decision on costs is a matter for that court. Costs incurred in submitting observations to the
Court, other than the costs of those parties, are not recoverable.
On those grounds, the Court (Grand Chamber) hereby rules:
Where goods located in a third State, which bear a trade mark registered in a Member State of the
European Union or a Community trade mark and have not previously been put on the market in the
European Economic Area or, in the case of a Community trade mark, in the European Union, (i) are sold
by an economic operator on an online marketplace without the consent of the trade mark proprietor to
a consumer located in the territory covered by the trade mark or (ii) are offered for sale or advertised
on such a marketplace targeted at consumers located in that territory, the trade mark proprietor may
prevent that sale, offer for sale or advertising by virtue of the rules set out in Article 5 of First Council
Directive 89/104/EEC of 21 December 1988 to approximate the laws of the Member States relating to
trade marks, as amended by the Agreement on the European Economic Area of 2 May 1992, or in Article
9 of Council Regulation (EC) No 40/94 of 20 December 1993 on the Community trade mark. It is the
task of the national courts to assess on a case-by-case basis whether relevant factors exist, on the
basis of which it may be concluded that an offer for sale or an advertisement displayed on an online
marketplace accessible from the territory covered by the trade mark is targeted at consumers in that
territory.
Where the proprietor of a trade mark supplies to its authorised distributors items bearing that mark,
intended for demonstration to consumers in authorised retail outlets, and bottles bearing the mark
from which small quantities can be taken for supply to consumers as free samples, those goods, in the
absence of any evidence to the contrary, are not put on the market within the meaning of Directive
89/104 and Regulation No 40/94.
Article 5 of Directive 89/104 and Article 9 of Regulation No 40/94 must be interpreted as meaning that
the proprietor of a trade mark may, by virtue of the exclusive right conferred by the mark, oppose the
resale of goods such as those at issue in the main proceedings, on the ground that the person reselling
the goods has removed their packaging, where the consequence of that removal is that essential
information, such as information relating to the identity of the manufacturer or the person responsible
for marketing the cosmetic product, is missing. Where the removal of the packaging has not resulted in
the absence of that information, the trade mark proprietor may nevertheless oppose the resale of an
unboxed perfume or cosmetic product bearing his trade mark, if he establishes that the removal of the
packaging has damaged the image of the product and, hence, the reputation of the trade mark.
On a proper construction of Article 5(1)(a) of Directive 89/104 and Article 9(1)(a) of Regulation No
40/94, the proprietor of a trade mark is entitled to prevent an online marketplace operator from
advertising – on the basis of a keyword which is identical to his trade mark and which has been
selected in an internet referencing service by that operator – goods bearing that trade mark which are
offered for sale on the marketplace, where the advertising does not enable reasonably well-informed
and reasonably observant internet users, or enables them only with difficulty, to ascertain whether the
goods concerned originate from the proprietor of the trade mark or from an undertaking economically
linked to that proprietor or, on the contrary, originate from a third party.
The operator of an online marketplace does not ‘use’ – for the purposes of Article 5 of Directive 89/104
or Article 9 of Regulation No 40/94 – signs identical with or similar to trade marks which appear in
offers for sale displayed on its site.
Article 14(1) of Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2000 on
certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal
Market (‘Directive on electronic commerce’) must be interpreted as applying to the operator of an
online marketplace where that operator has not played an active role allowing it to have knowledge or
control of the data stored.
The operator plays such a role when it provides assistance which entails, in particular, optimising the
presentation of the offers for sale in question or promoting them.
Where the operator of the online marketplace has not played an active role within the meaning of the
preceding paragraph and the service provided falls, as a consequence, within the scope of Article 14(1)
of Directive 2000/31, the operator none the less cannot, in a case which may result in an order to pay
damages, rely on the exemption from liability provided for in that provision if it was aware of facts or
circumstances on the basis of which a diligent economic operator should have realised that the offers
for sale in question were unlawful and, in the event of it being so aware, failed to act expeditiously in
accordance with Article 14(1)(b) of Directive 2000/31.
The third sentence of Article 11 of Directive 2004/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
of 29 April 2004 on the enforcement of intellectual property rights must be interpreted as requiring the
Member States to ensure that the national courts with jurisdiction in relation to the protection of
intellectual property rights are able to order the operator of an online marketplace to take measures
which contribute, not only to bringing to an end infringements of those rights by users of that
marketplace, but also to preventing further infringements of that kind. Those injunctions must be
effective, proportionate, and dissuasive and must not create barriers to legitimate trade.
[Signatures]
curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=107261&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=1392992
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