A French court yesterday ordered Ebay to pay almost €40m (£31m) to luxury goods maker LVMH for failing to do enough to block sales of counterfeit goods, a decision that hits at the heart of Ebay's business model.

The world's biggest e-commerce company was also ordered to block sales of genuine bottles of perfume made by four LVMH brands after the court ruled that it had breached the selective distribution agreements that LVMH uses to control where and how the perfume is sold.