A French court has hit at the heart of Ebay’s business model by ordering the online retailer to pay almost €40m to LVMH, the French luxury goods maker, for failing to do enough to block sales of counterfeit goods.

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 LVMH uses to control where and how the perfume is sold.