Cork mother in High Court bid to stop toddler's image being used on eBay
A Cork mother has gone to court in a bid to stop images of her toddler daughter in a Halloween costume being used on eBay.
A High Court judge today granted an interim injunction to the toddler, who had applied to the court through her mother, restraining eBay from processing or using the girl’s image.
The little girl’s mother, a nurse had posted pictures of her daughter on Instagram on October 30, 2018, was alerted by a friend almost a year later that the image had been used online by Amazon and eBay commercial websites that sell products online through auction or private sale.
In an affidavit to the court, the nurse said she did not give permission to anyone to use, distribute, sell or copy these images.
On October 13 last year she said she found out from a close friend the image of her daughter was being used on eBay commercial websites that sell products online and also on Amazon.
She contacted both companies who she said reassured her they would investigate it and revert back to her.
Amazon she said contacted her to reassure her they had taken the complaint seriously and they were actively investigating the matter.
Amazon in January this year confirmed they had investigated the matter and had removed all images of the child found on product detail pages.
It also said sellers had been identified by its investigations team and appropriate actions had been taken on those accounts.
The child’s counsel John Temple BL told the High Court Amazon had a very proactive approach but eBay had a very different approach which was that the onus was on the parents of the child to monitor for the image use and make an application to have images removed.
Counsel said the mother phoned eBay on November 4, 2019 and was directed to file her complaint online.
eBay, two days later asked to provide her email address to the person using her daughter’s image and she said she did not want this to happen.
Counsel said the nurse then engaged a solicitor on the matter and eBay along with Amazon were asked on January 7, this year to immediately cease and desist controlling and further from processing any image of the little girl.
eBay, Counsel said informed the nurse the listing on its website had been removed, and said it had passed on personal details to the user who had used the photos.
At the end of January this year, eBay told the mother’s solicitor it had already dealt with the issue of the image on the one identified page and it could only take action against a listing if it is identified on a notice of claimed infringement form.
Earlier this month eBay was informed by the solicitor the little girl’s image was still being used by a number of sellers via its website and a request to remove the images was made.
Mr Justice Robert Eager said he would grant an interim injunction against eBay otherwise known as eBay Europe Services Ltd from processing, reproducing or using the child’s image.
The interim injunction will be in place until the hearing of the action. The case will come back before the court on June 16 next.
