Listing taken down for 'Conterfeiting'

benja_bor
Community Member

Basically the title. Lsting name was "Metallic Phone Smart Holder Grip Socket Stand Dock Mobile Mount Pop Bracket"

The item is a phone mount, listed as Unbranded/Generic, nothing claiming to be a branded product, price was 5.95 which doesn't reflect branding prices. No brand name listed on the item, No brand names listed anywhere in my pictures, No brand name mentioned within the description. Ebays counterfeit policy states:
- Counterfeit products are illegal and not allowed on eBay. Examples include:
-- Fakes, copies or replicas of brand name items (for example, a shoe with the Nike name or logo that wasn’t made by Nike)
-- Electronics or accessories that use or bear the brand name, logo or trademark of a company that didn’t manufacture the item
-- Bootleg recordings from concerts or other live shows
-- Unauthorised or pirated copies of movies, videos or software
- Listings with photos that hide or blur trademarks are not allowed
- If you’re not certain that your item is authentic, or if an authenticator has been unable to confirm its authenticity, it may not be listed
- We may remove listings if we receive buyer complaints that the item is not authentic. These items may not be relisted.

 

I spoke to customer service and they told me it's because my keywords have the words 'Pop' and 'Socket' in my listing name though a brand 'PopSocket' is one word put together. These words are used to describe my item accurately. They also told me I'm not allowed to relist the item even if my listing didn't contain those keywords so I was quite confused as to why that would be.

On further inspection I've found multiple other listings that have those keywords that have not been taken down. One listing even has over 5000 sales with those keywords within the: Title 'Metal Phone Smart Ring Holder Grip Socket Stand Dock Magnetic Mount Pop Bracket'.

 

I don't understand why I'm being so targeted even when following their policy but they can turn a blind eye when it comes to other competitors in the market that are doing the same thing that I am being accused of?

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Listing taken down for 'Conterfeiting'

Someone may have reported yours and not others.

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Listing taken down for 'Conterfeiting'

One of your competitors has probably reported it. Probably the one with over 5000 sales on the item. That's usually the reason why someone has a listing removed, when others remain. That seller also may not have liked that you have basically stolen their title. 

 

That seller has a silver shooting star for over 1,000,000 feedback. Chances are, if they put in a report about something, eBay is going to listen to them.

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Listing taken down for 'Conterfeiting'

benja_bor
Community Member

I'm sure I wasn't the only listing taken down but the idea that Ebay CS are trying to say I'm not allowed to sell my phone holders even though they said the only 'counterfeiting' (which I don't believe I even breached the counterfeiting policy) is due to the keywords Pop and Socket being in the listing name and I said that I will relist it without those words and basically wasn't threatened I would risk having my account banned for relisting my items. So here I am stuck with hundreds of dollars worth of stock that I've been extorted into not being able to list them. A friend believes that it's just luck that my listing and other listings were picked on and others haven't been spotted. He's had listings where his were taken down (Selling Vapes) whilst others were selling exactly the same thing and only his was taken down telling him that it was basically against policy to sell vapes though there were 100's of other listings selling vapes with 1000's of sales. I would like to believe that I was the target of having my listing reported by another seller but I feel like theres more to it whether it's being a more established seller account, whether I am actually breaching a policy in a way that another seller is not.

Would I be in my rights to argue with ebay to get my account back if my account was banned for selling my items if I don't use the keywords that apparently breach their policy? There's just so many questions I wish I had the answers to that I don't get when speaking to CS. It took an hour to get an answer as to what I breached and from then on that just kept telling me not to relist my item at all and eventually closed the chat on me.

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Listing taken down for 'Conterfeiting'

eBay CS will only read out /type out what the script they pull up tell them to say 

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Listing taken down for 'Conterfeiting'


@benja_bor wrote:

 

Would I be in my rights to argue with ebay to get my account back if my account was banned for selling my items if I don't use the keywords that apparently breach their policy? 

 

_________________________________________________________________________________________

If eBay close your account down you will have Buckley's Chance of ever being able to sell on it or another account again, account closure is usually a death sentence without any chance of appeal.

______________________________________________________

"Start me up I'll never stop......"
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Listing taken down for 'Conterfeiting'


@benja_bor wrote:

I'm sure I wasn't the only listing taken down but the idea that Ebay CS are trying to say I'm not allowed to sell my phone holders even though they said the only 'counterfeiting' (which I don't believe I even breached the counterfeiting policy) is due to the keywords Pop and Socket being in the listing name and I said that I will relist it without those words and basically wasn't threatened I would risk having my account banned for relisting my items. So here I am stuck with hundreds of dollars worth of stock that I've been extorted into not being able to list them. A friend believes that it's just luck that my listing and other listings were picked on and others haven't been spotted. He's had listings where his were taken down (Selling Vapes) whilst others were selling exactly the same thing and only his was taken down telling him that it was basically against policy to sell vapes though there were 100's of other listings selling vapes with 1000's of sales. I would like to believe that I was the target of having my listing reported by another seller but I feel like theres more to it whether it's being a more established seller account, whether I am actually breaching a policy in a way that another seller is not.

Would I be in my rights to argue with ebay to get my account back if my account was banned for selling my items if I don't use the keywords that apparently breach their policy? There's just so many questions I wish I had the answers to that I don't get when speaking to CS. It took an hour to get an answer as to what I breached and from then on that just kept telling me not to relist my item at all and eventually closed the chat on me.


If eBay believe that an item is counterfeit (and I use those particular words both pointedly and ironically), then their policy re: counterfeit items applies. That means it's the item itself that is causing the problem, not the keywords, so any interation of the listing can attract problems. I once listed a dress that included "Audrey Hepburn" in the title, as it was styled like the classic black dress in Breakfast At Tiffanys. The listing was nuked within hours (rightfully), but it was a keyword issue not an item issue, so I was able to immediately relist as long as I didn't have the offending words in the title.

 

It sounds like eBay think the item itself is trying to pass off as a genuine branded item, and in their counterfeit policy, they cover things like listing it as a generic item and just not showing any of the badging or labeling of the item. 

 

That kind of claim is generally only able to be made by a VeRO registered member (that is, an official representative of the company claiming copyright breach). If there's nothing about the item or the title that appears to puport them as PopSocket brand, then someone has clearly overstepped the bounds for some reason - it's a shame eBay don't give sellers the right of reply (counterclaim) like every other site out there with a program or system that allows copyright / trademark holders to file such notices. Smiley Frustrated

 

It used to be that if you contacted the VeRO member, and either did not get a reply, or obtained confirmation your items were legit / not in breach of any of their IP, eBay would allow the listing to go back up, but I'm not sure if that is the case, still. 

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Listing taken down for 'Conterfeiting'

since when do you need PERMISSION to sell items from a BRAND or otherwise.

the VERO system is nothing more then a way for big players to try control small sellers with MISUSE of copyright law, most of which are not even local.
 
false vERO claims are not new... and eBay has done little about it to protect sellers.
 
it comes down to wording and not misleading the customer and fair use!

for example:

-the customer should not think you are the brand or represent the brand or its network.

-you can use picture and info, logos etc to represent the product for sale as long as its not misleading.

-adding something like “private sale not affiliated with xyz” may cover this.

 

oten the claims have weak foundation and they rely on compliance
Fight back against these false claims, because its misused often.
 
Helpful links
 
www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2017C00180

www.copyright.com.au/about-copyright

www.copyright.org.au


FAIR USE:
www.alrc.gov.au/publication/copyright-and-the-digital-economy-dp-79/4-the-case-for-fair-use-in-austr...

 

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Listing taken down for 'Conterfeiting'

I have a similar issue trying to resell a pair of Vans sneakers. I bought the sneakers on eBay to begin with and they keep pulling it down saying they are counterfeit! 

The shoes are 100% authentic, the model is current as listed on vans.com. It's ridiculous! I can scroll through the hundreds of Chinese listings and spot fake after fake but they don't seem to have a problem with those? 

I'm going to be closing my account once my last few transactions have cleared. eBay stopped caring about small sellers years ago.... Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice....

 

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