Hi. Thank you for opening this topic. I think it's worth a read particularly for newer Sellers. I hope my research may save someone else a bit of time and frustration.
As I said this is a complex topic. Every case is different. They involve the Rights owners, the Seller, the nature of the product, the listing itself and Ebay.
Ebay seems to force all the variances for take down reasons through a narrow funnel of check boxes. In other words Ebay doesn't allow very many "take down" reasons for rights owners to select and individualize their accusations. Let's say "A policeman pulls you over while driving. You went through a traffic light. On the constable's form there's no box for him to check for someone going through a red light. Instead he checks the next closest reason. "Went through a stop sign". Of course you didn't go through a stop sign. Easy to fight that through LOCAL jurisdictions.
In my case the charge on the notice was selling a supposed "counterfeit" sticker from Canada that was made in the USA. The parent company is in California. Either they didn't look at the photo of the back of it or maybe they didn't care it was authentic the charge could easily be dissproven. but there is no local jurisdiction.
To be clear the companies that file a take down request to Ebay have only a few check boxes to choose from. I'm not sure but it may only be two reasons in the USA due to their law that grants owners of legal items to legally sell them. I don't want to mislead anyone. If you want to clarify that go to the Ebay Vero pages and look it up for Canada.
The only reason I could guess they wanted my item gone was because as it was their own promotional sticker that they gave me themselves in the 90s it had a picture of their logo on it. This is still speculation as no one yet from the parent company or Ebay will tell me which item was the problem in my lot of 4 items that came from different manufacturers. Sort of like the police officer saying " You went through a red light and I can't say where it was." I can see why Ebay doesn't know. there is no place for a company or a "bot" to specifically describe an item in a check box.
In my last comment I suggested some public sources (YouTube) to illustrate to sellers how other sellers handle these situations. One of them ("Profit Monsters" video dated Jan 27, 2020) since directed me to the best information which is actually on Ebay USA. You can go through the list of the wishes of verified rights owners. and see what they expect. Ican tell you every single one has different requests from Ebay sellers regarding their products. Unfortunately the one that abused the policy saying I was counterfeiting is not on this list. You can also see why other sellers may report you to the verified rights owner and how Ebay encourages them to do that.
In my case I tried to learn from others and I did what needed to be done to avoid this happening again. I agree with "Rockstar Flipper". Just do whatever you have to do to make it go away. Try to avoid it in the future through self knowledge. Don't blame Ebay. The legal complexities are too complicated for Ebay to try and regulate. The problem is multiplatform. It's and not restricted to Ebay. As a seller you are on your own. It's a poorly managed loophole and just not worth taking personally.
Companies can contact you outside of Ebay. via email, letters to your business or even phone calls. They can buy your stuff and thus get your contact info. Scams can happen this way. Other sellers have even been known to act as rights holders. If the notice comes through Ebay it's actually good because it's easy enough to verify if the request is bonified.
Here is the Ebay USA link to the list of companies. It has many FAQs. One for example shows how Ebay itself encourages sellers to report rights violtaions directly to the rights owners. another explains how other sellers may have similar listings to yours that are not affected. Click on some companies that catch your eye. Each includes a PDF on why that specific company will take your item down.
Then go to Ebay Canada's Veros page. You will notice the checkboxs Ebay provides to companies may not have much to do (if anything) with the actual reason they outline in their "what sellers can and can't do" PDF. Lots of companies simply don't want any products bearing their namesake (even if authentic) to be resold. One such company is Otterbox but there are lots. Just a photo of the logo is enough for a takedown beit a legal one or not. Some companies have good reasons such as warrantees and licensed seller protections. Some say selling used is OK but not new. In that case sometimes Sellers with brand new items choose to list them as "used". Theres a question of legality but a legal dispute can cost plenty.
In my mind knowledge is the best defense. Please correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure it's OK to post an Ebay link so here it is.
https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/listing-and-marketing/verified-rights-owner-program.html#m17-1-...
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