The European Court of Justice is expected to recognise the competence of a national jurisdiction in a member state for ruling on illegal sales carried out through the foreign websites of US online sales giant Amazon, according to advocate general Melchior Wathelet.
Wathelet presented this conclusion to the Court on Wednesday 9 November. In this case (C-618/15), the French Court of Appeal asked the Court if the French legal system had the jurisdiction to rule on specific litigation involving a French company (Concurrence) and Amazon. The dispute focuses on the fact that Concurrence has exclusive rights for selling certain products in France, whereas Amazon offers these products to its customers on its French (Amazon.fr) and foreign websites (Amazon.de, Amazon.es, Amazon.co.uk, etc.). French customers can purchase the products on both the French and other websites.
The advocate general considers that the damages suffered by the French company may indeed be real and can only occur in France. This is why it should be French judges that have competence in this case and it should be up to them to determine whether the claimed reduction in sales and lost profits suffered by this company in France are due not only to the activities of the Amazon.fr website but also to the activities of the foreign Amazon websites. If this proves to be the case, the company should be able to obtain an injunction from the French courts against the foreign Amazon websites. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)