If you pay Selfridges £40 for a bottle of Christian Dior J’adore perfume it becomes your property. You can do anything you want with it. Right? Wrong, at least in France.

According to a remarkable French court judgment yesterday, you would still be allowed to give it to your mum, throw it away or drink it. But it would be illegal for you to sell it on eBay. Or indeed any other internet site. It might even be illegal to give it to the French equivalent of the Oxfam shop.

As part of a case focused on counterfeiting, the court backed LVMH’s argument that a luxury goods company must have the right to choose its own distribution network. Otherwise, the value of its brands could be undermined. And that control should extend to individuals on the internet.

According to eBay, the ruling would extend to second-hand products so you would be prevented from selling that Louis Vuitton bag you were bored with.

LVMH last night insisted that this was eBay spin, and that the judgment related only to the resale of new products distributed though bulk wholesalers, particularly to duty free shops.

EBay replied that, under the guise of a crackdown on counterfeiting, LVMH was simply trying to protect uncompetitive commercial practices at the expense of consumer choice.

If true, it would be quite understandable. Counterfeiting is a serious problem but the internet appears to represent a broader challenge to companies such as LVMH which even the French courts will be powerless to resist.

Times Recommends

• Lies and cover-up at MG Rover exposed by report
• High oil prices push manufacturing costs up
• Primark founder steps down as chief executive