A French court ordered eBay to pay 38.6 million euros ($61 million) to luxury goods group LVMH for allowing the sale of fake merchandise, in a ruling immediately appealed by the online auction website.

UK retailers took a beating Thursday as Home Retail and Carphone Warehouse struck a more pessimistic tone about the prospects of consumer spending.

Switzerland’s leading stock index, the SMI, has fallen more than 21 percent over the last twelve months, but investment opportunities are emerging with certain large-cap well-positioned stocks such as Roche and Swatch, Maximilian Muench, head of Swiss equities research at UBS told CNBC.

Tiffany posted higher-than-expected quarterly profit Friday, boosted by strong sales in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and to tourists at its Manhattan flagship store, and the U.S. jeweler raised its full-year outlook, pushing its shares up 4 percent.

U.S. handbag maker Coach says the China region will make up over 4 percent of its turnover by 2013 as it expands into 100 cities across the country over the next 10 to 15 years, betting its increasingly well-heeled consumers will demand more brand-name products.

U.S. handbag maker Coach on Wednesday said it will acquire its own domestic retail businesses in Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China from its current distributor, the ImagineX group.

Shares in digital map maker Tele Atlas rallied on Thursday on hopes EU regulators will approve its 2.9 billion euro ($4.48 billion) takeover by TomTom, Europe's largest maker of car navigation devices.

EBay said Thursday it is cutting 125 jobs in Europe and North America, including 70 positions at the online auctioneer's headquarters in San Jose, Calif.

BMW, the world's largest premium carmaker, forecast higher underlying profit in 2008 asit keeps margins at its core automotive business at least steady despite high raw material costs and a strong euro.

Watchmaker Swatch Group gave an upbeat outlook for 2008 on Friday, helped by the Olympic Games, despite headwinds from currency swings and soaring raw material prices.

French retailer PPR said on Wednesday 2007 net profit rose 34.6 percent, helped by strong results at its luxury and African trading divisions and its acquisition of German sportswear group Puma.

LVMH, the world's largest luxury goods group, brushed aside concerns that a U.S. recession could dent its performance but sounded more cautious about 2008 as it unveiled an 8 percent rise in 2007 net profit.

Richemont, the world's second-largest luxury goods group, narrowly missed forecasts on
Wednesday with an 8 percent rise in third-quarter sales, and said demand "slowed somewhat" in Japan and the United States in December.

Jeweler Tiffany cut its fiscal-year earnings outlook Friday as same-store sales fell 2 percent in the United States during the November-December holiday period.