Why does ebay let so many counterfeit items and sellers stay for selling and running?

[jaramano]

I'm particularly fond of NBA basketball items on Ebay and keep an eye out on the home page customisations and do weekly searches.

It never ceases to amaze me hwo many fake items like jerseys, hats, shoes and other stuff is allowed to continue being sold.

I've reported dozens of items that I 100% know are 100% fake (as most avid collectors would know).

I mean I've even done reports showing the proof of something being fake, and nothing is done?

How are legitimate businesses and sellers supposed to compete when they're selling their authentic jerseys for 80 dollars and $10-20 profit when there are counterfeit sellers listing replica or fake items that appear the same to the untrained eye? These guys sell jerseys for $25 that retail for $120-200. They are blatantly obvious fakes when looking at the pictures. This gets reported multiple times and ebay seemingly does nothing.

Here's a great example:

NBA basketball team hats

 *'New Glory' is the counterfeit of 'New Era', and New Era has a trade marked cap similar to this with the flat brim- they are also only 1 of 2 licensed suppliers of flat brimmed hats for the NBA basketball brand. This guy gets these caps from China for $5 each or less and throws them on Ebay for $15 when New Era hats retail for a minimum of $30 and up to $50 for the same hat.

I just don't understand how they are allowed to get away with this. Type in NBA jersey in Ebay Australia and see what comes up. It's just pathetic- it's become like an online chinese market or a bangkok side street vendor via the internet.

Anyone else extremely frustrated by the lack of policing by Ebay? Their reports system is fruitless- even with detailed proof nothing is done.

[thecatspjs]

I don't know why they don't ramp up policing in this area.

The dissatisfaction it creates for buyers and sellers does not serve its reputation well as a safe marketplace to trade in.

[harley_babes_hoard]

$$$$$$$$$

[putney32]

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@jaramano wrote:

NBA basketball team hats

I just don't understand how they are allowed to get away with this. Type in NBA jersey in Ebay Australia and see what comes up. It's just pathetic- it's become like an online chinese market or a bangkok side street vendor via the internet.

Anyone else extremely frustrated by the lack of policing by Ebay? Their reports system is fruitless- even with detailed proof nothing is done.

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ebay cannot take the word of one user against another in such cases, it is up to the copyright holder to UPHOLD his copyright, and many companies do, they join the ebay VERO program and have fakes of their copyright removed from ebay.

maybe you should be asking the NBA why they do not stop the counterfieters

[this-way-up]

It might be because the sellers are not doing anything wrong.

It depends on what is "fake" about the product as to what if any action can be taken. Generally, it is ONLY the copyright owner or trade licence owner etc, that can actually make a complaint.

If you think you have actaully found a "counterfeit" product, you should first contact the copyright or trade owner.

The example you give shows nothing wrong. New Glory is clearly a different brand name to New Era...That is like saying Holden is a conterfeit Ford...It's a hat - the human head (on most people) is pretty much the same shape, so hats are going look pretty much the same shape. If it were actually "conterfeit" it would have "New Era" on it not "New Glory"...It is just a different brand.

It might just be that eBay sees it as it is... Different brands. 

[pickapresent13]

New glory is obviously a rip off of New Era if all other colouring and bagings are the same. I sell NRL/AFL items, as well as Yugioh - Pokemon - MTG Trading Cards on eBay as well as markets. It used to annoy the **bleep** out of me that I had 20 people a day coming up to me saying I`m a rip-off cause my packs pf pokemon are $5 and another guys are $2. I explained mine are genuine licensed product. They didn`t care, they went and bought the $2 ones.
In the end, I started looking at it differently, and believe the people buying fakes are buying them for their kids cause they are cheap, and would be unlikely to pay full price for genuine only, so I wasn`t missing out on much. Quite often I`d get some come back the following week and buy mine cause their kids couldn`t swap them with friends cause they were fake.
I blame it on the Licensing police more than eBay. They advertise about how heavily they come down on people for selling fakes, but in 8 years of selling at markets where there is a mountain of fake Adidas - Nike - NRL - Formula 1 - Trading Cards etc, I`ve only ever seen one raid by the licensing police

[this-way-up]

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@2for1swapcards wrote:
New glory is obviously a rip off of New Era ......

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I think the word you are looking for is generic or maybe alternative.

There is a big difference between fake or conterfeit and simply a different brand.

Let's use your shoe example...What do you want the police to do? Sure, if the shoe is a fake with Nike on it then it's a fake...But you are talking saying that Nike would be just fake Adidas !!

Where would you stop...Woolies bake beans would be fake Coles bake beans. Cheaptool screwdrivers would just fake Stanley screwdrivers. A copper ring would just be a fake gold ring. Microsoft would just be a fake Apple. eBay would be just a fake Gumtree. Harley Davidson would just be a fake Honda... In fact the Hells Agles would be just fake Dykes-on-Bikes.

The OP has a hobby collecting these things.That is great. But just because he wants to buy collectable items does not mean that the item that are not collectable are fakes...It just means that those items are not the brand that he wants to collect.

[kg5collector]

"Let The Buyer Beware" 😞

Coins are also popular for finding fakes.

I would not buy coins because I have no idea what is what in the coin world!

[jaramano]

@this-way-up wrote:

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@2for1swapcards wrote:
New glory is obviously a rip off of New Era ......

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.

I think the word you are looking for is generic or maybe alternative.

There is a big difference between fake or conterfeit and simply a different brand.

Let's use your shoe example...What do you want the police to do? Sure, if the shoe is a fake with Nike on it then it's a fake...But you are talking saying that Nike would be just fake Adidas !!

Where would you stop...Woolies bake beans would be fake Coles bake beans. Cheaptool screwdrivers would just fake Stanley screwdrivers. A copper ring would just be a fake gold ring. Microsoft would just be a fake Apple. eBay would be just a fake Gumtree. Harley Davidson would just be a fake Honda... In fact the Hells Agles would be just fake Dykes-on-Bikes.

The OP has a hobby collecting these things.That is great. But just because he wants to buy collectable items does not mean that the item that are not collectable are fakes...It just means that those items are not the brand that he wants to collect.

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No, that's completely wrong. The 'New Glory' is a brand that is counterfeiting the New Era licensed product for the NBA, It isn't 'Generic'. Generic would be a Green hat with no logo and no trademarked team name and team logo.

These items are breaking both the international counterfeit laws and licencsing laws.

There is no listed registered product  named 'New Glory' with the NBA. There are only 2 companies that are registered providers of NBA 'fitted' caps.

They're changing the name to avoid counterfeit claims by New Era (which would never fly in court)  but using the the NBA team logos and names/colours/registered trademarks when they do not have the permission. This is called a counterfeit and unlicencsed item.

Your analogies are completely wrong.  If you were the owners of the Boston Celtics, would you want your brand name being on a product that was 

a)unlicensed and doing so without your permission- thus stopping you from taking a cut from the sales/profits

b) lesser quality and made under loose and sometimes poor guidelines, thus having your name on a lower quality product that you approve?

This is actually like putting a Mercedes star on a Daewoo and calling the Daewoo a Mercedes without their permission.

The fact is tht this is not an NBA licensed product and they are using both the NBA brand and Boston Celtics brand without permission and illegally- it's a straight counterfeit product- no argument to it, it's fact.

You are correct though that unless the NBA or copyright holder- in this case the New Era company- reports this then not much will be done. I still insist that Ebay just lets this slide and really don't do enough about this.

It's become an online black market for counterfeiters around the world.