eBay have been ordered to pay 40 million Euros in fines for selling fakes. The company will have to pay the money to LVMH, a French luxury goods group because they have allowed fake versions of their products to be sold on the eBay website. LVMH demanded 50 million Euros in damages after claiming that eBay's French business has not done enough to prevent users selling counterfeit items. LVMH also told the court that in 2006 90% of the LVMH branded goods for sale on eBay were fakes. eBay plans to appeal against the decision and says it quickly removes any goods that are found to be counterfeit.

I found this website the other day that sells a range of personalised jewellery. One thing that they have which is slightly unusual is a section devoted to medical ID jewellery. The nice thing about this site is that you can pick a medical id bracelet and then customise it. You start off by selecting the bracelet type from a traditional design or a charm bracelet. You can then select what sort of chain you would like to have on your bracelet and you can even select which clasp you would like. You can also choose the length of the bracelet and can add an alert charm. The next stage of the process allows you to choose what you want engraved onto to your bracelet. Once you have entered the text to be engraved you can run it through the spell check and preview it before checking out. Despite the fact that all the items are made to order you can still get them fairly quickly, the standard service takes approx 3 weeks or the rush service costs £5 extra and items are made with 3-5 days. Shipping to the UK costs an additional £4.00 by Royal Mail first class or just £8 on the DHL express option.

It appears that real ale is enjoying something of a revival as shoppers cut back on lager in favour of the more traditional British beer. That's according to this article which says lager sales fell by 5.7 per cent last year whereas ale sales increased by 3.3 per cent. One reason for the change could be that's supermarkets have started to stock a bigger range of premium bottled beers. Tesco for example now stock 300 bottles ales instead of only 50 two years ago. All Hail the ale.

I came across this website the other day which offers a useful service for players of online bingo. The website is called Bingo Port and it monitors and ranks all of the UK's online bingo sites. It shows information such as the ticket price, the number of players and the expected jackpot so that you can work out which game to play. The site also has various special offers and discounts, for example the current bingo site of the month which gives you £10 free at Gala Bingo. Not all of the games require you to pay you can also use the website to register for some free bingo games, such as Bingo Night live, a free weekday game that runs every day on ITV at midnight. Either way, whether you like to play the free games or the paid ones, its certainly worth checking out this website first.

Some of the leading supermarkets have announced cut price promotions as customers start to move to discount stores to save money. Stores like Aldi and Lidl have seen strong growth as they sell items such as bread and eggs for as little as 50p. In response Tesco has said it will cut the cost of 3,000 items on Monday with some items being cut by as much as 50%. Sainsbury's has also responded with temporary price cuts on summer items such as strawberries.

Scientists have found a way to make white wine as good for you as red. Red wine is generally thought to be better for you because it contains high levels of polyphenols which lower cholesterol. However, these are present in the skins of the grapes which are taken off when making white wine. However, research has found that leaving the skins to ferment with the pulp for a short time and adding a small amount of pure alcohol can preserve the polyphenol content of white wine. The downside is that the wine tastes like a dessert wine because the added alcohol inhibits the ability of the sugar in the grape to convert to alcohol.

Sales of frozen food have risen by 4.2% in the past year. The rise has been put down to the fact that food costs have soared leading shoppers to look for cheaper alternatives. After five years of little growth, the frozen food sector appears to be enjoying a growth spurt with fish products seeing an 11% increase in sales and frozen vegetables a 5.5% increase.

Cheap supermarket alcohol could be banned under new plans by ministers. They plan to introduce a minimum price for alcohol which would put the price at least 35p per unit. The move is aimed at cutting down binge drinking among teenagers. If it goes ahead it would an end to cut price deals in supermarkets and would mean that a can of Foster's would cost at least 72p, whilst a can of Stella would be priced at 88p. Some supermarkets currently sell a can of beer for as little as 23p.

Concerns have been raised about the safety of microwave heat packs after an elderly died whilst using one. Doreen Ghiloni had used a heat pack called a Hottie rather than a traditional hot water bottle. Heat packs are heated in the microwave and are made to slowly release heat over a period of time. In this case the item caught fire in her bed and it is thought she was overcome by the fumes. Firs investigators in West Yorkshire have dealt with six other incidents involving heat packs in the past year and Mrs Ghiloni's family are now campaigning for the instructions of the packs to be changed to try and prevent any further accidents.

I tried a new shampoo from Lush the other day. It is called Curly Wurly and according to the lush website it is meant to "calm curls and tame tangles. It has quite favourable reviews on their site but I hated pretty much everything about it. Firstly the smell and texture of the shampoo is fairly awful. It contains lots of pieces of coconut and after applying the shampoo it took me over an hour and half to try and remove these from my hair. I can only think that it is meant for people with thin hair, but if you have thick hair, be warned that coconut will take a long time to wash out. Secondly rather than removing tangles it seemed to add them to my hair, it also dried it out leaving it more fluffy and if possible thicker than usual. The only thing I liked about the shampoo was that the next day my hair smelt really nice but I will not be using this again.

I was looking around for some gift ideas and found this website that sells silver jewellery. They are based in the UK but can ship items all over the world. The interesting thing about their range of jewellery is that the items are not available on the high street. They are sourced directly from the jewellery makers in Thailand and sold through the keysilver website. As they are not available at any larger retailers and are not produced in large quantities  you can you can find something a little more unusual and exclusive.

Their range includes silver bracelets and bangles, silver necklaces and silver pendants. All of their items are stamped with a quality mark of 925 to indicate the purity of the silver and most items are available for shipping within 24 hours. I particularly liked their range of silver bracelets especially the silver star bracelet (pictured) which costs £15.00. Many of the items also have matching necklaces and all items are sent packaged in an organza jewel bag so are great to send as gifts. They currently offer free shipping within the UK on orders of £10.00 or more and they offer a 14 day money back guarantee. Its certainly worth bookmarking this website for future use especially as they are adding new products all the time.