International online auction and shopping website, eBay.com, has threatened a South African rental property company, Tenant Profile Network (TPN), with a lawsuit to shut down its website.

A trademark infringement lawsuit brought against TPN states that the property company’s RentBay website, which it uses to list rental properties without charge, has been deceiving 'millions of eBay customers' according to a report in the Business Day newspaper.

The publication further reports that the lawyers instructed TPN to stop using Rentbay.co.za and the trademark RentBay as it was likely to cause "deception or confusion" and took "unfair advantage" of eBay’s trademarks.

Michelle Dickens, managing director, TPN said she researched to check if eBay had a case.

"Do visitors really come to Rentbay.co.za thinking they’ve found eBay?" she asked.

"To understand what brings visitors to us, we looked at our analytics. Since 2008 we have not attracted a single visitor who searched for eBay and ended up with us," Dickens explained.

"They’re a listed business based in the US with a market capitalisation of $65.5bn. We’re a tenant credit bureau based in Johannesburg; the closest we get to $65-billion is converting our turnover into Zimbabwean dollars," she concluded.

The property company has not been the only one to be served with a lawsuit in South Africa. Earlier this year, a business in Hout Bay changed its named from Dolce and Banana when Italy’s Dolce & Gabbana threatened to take it to court, the Business Day reported.

TPN has until December 14 to submit opposing papers to eBay.