A French court recently sided with the luxury good conglomerate LVMH, owner of Louis Vuitton and other labels, on the issue of counterfeit sales on Ebay. The decision is excellent from the standpoint of counterfeits, which are rampant on ebay and elsewhere (any street vendor in any metropolitan area), but it is potentially the death knell for the legitimate fragrance aftermarket.

What IS the fragrance aftermarket? When a perfume house introduces a new fragrance, the distribution is often limited to chosen markets. You might see a new fragrance -- let's call it NEXT HOT THING -- in Nordstrom, for example, but not be able to find it at a discount retailer. But at some point, from a marketing perspective, Nordstrom is going to want the newest hot thing on their counters, so the NEXT HOT THING stock that has not yet sold gets sold to an aftermarket supplier. There are several major discounters who wholesale to folks like me. These are AUTHENTIC new fragrances, just not the newest hot thing anymore. Since a market remains for the fragrance, the maker will continue production. At some point, production might cease, and then the supply slowly dwindles.

What LVMH is seeking to do is control the market completely - from first distribution to aftermarket sales - under the guise of fighting counterfeits. Why do I say this? Because in addition to owning several of the major fragrance brands -- Dior, Givenchy, Kenzo, Guerlain -- they also own Sephora, the largest aftermarket supplier who does NOT wholesale (they do offer affiliate relationships). The legal decision just rendered in France forbids the sale on ebay of any of the aforementioned fragrances, whether counterfeit or not, at least in the French venue. How this will translate to other Ebay venues is unknown at this time, but I have already noticed a tightening of supply for those fragrances in the general aftermarket.

This should be a concern for all fragrance lovers. Such tactics are unhealthy to the market. Controlling the market in this fashion will undoubtedly result in higher prices for LVMH fragrance products, even in their Sephora afterlives. Where will it end? Could it result in the collapse of fragrance discounters? We shall see. What can you do to prevent this? I'm not sure. Express your displeasure directly to LVMH. Boycott their products. These are some possibilities, but I'm not sure how effective they will be. There is always the possibility that this tactic will backfire on LVMH - especially in a world economy that is tightening for luxury goods. In the meantime, if you love certain fragrances and are enjoying discounted prices here on ebay or elsewhere, you had best stock up -- they may not be available much longer without paying higher fare to Sephora.