July 12 (Bloomberg) -- EBay Inc., the world's largest online auction company, must ban sales of ``harmful'' media, including pornographic or violent movies, to juveniles, if it knows such products are offered on its German Web site, a court ruled.

The Federal Court of Justice, Germany's highest civil court, ruled that EBay must act if it learns about a specific illegal offer. The case was remanded to an appeals court for a final ruling, the Karlsruhe-based Court of Justice said in an e-mailed statement today.

In Germany, books, films and games with pornographic or violent content may only be sold in stores that limit access to adults.

``EBay has created the serious and manifest danger that its Internet platform will be used to distribute media indexed harmful to juveniles,'' the court said. If the company knows about an illegal offer, it must delete the item from the Web site and take precautions that the seller will not offer similar products again.

EBay said it informs customers about legal guidelines and takes action when it discovers improper product sales.

``EBay is taking every effort to delete illegal content from the site,'' Maike Fuest, a spokeswoman for EBay's German unit, said in a telephone interview. ``We are certain we already adhere to what the court now said.''

The case was brought by a German association of media retailers. The lower court had said that EBay is not liable because it did not sell the products and only provides a platform for others.

Today's case is I ZR 18/04.

To contact the reporter on this story: Karin Matussek in Berlin at kmatussek@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 12, 2007 08:08 EDT