Counterfeit accusation from rights owner

[vip-marketplace]

I was just called by eBay to inform me they were contacted by Entertainmentone.enforcement@incoproip.com and told one of my product (Peppa the Pig RoomMates Decal Mural) was counterfeit.

This is false. The item was bought directly from Walmart. It's a genuine and licensed product.

Now I'm told any other Trademark Violation would result in a suspension of my account...

I've written to the e-mail address they gave me and told them the item was genuine and proposed to send them the walmart receipt.

As I expected, I got no reply at all.

They make this bogus accusation and my seller account is now "damaged" and there's nothing I can do about it...

Anybody else had similar issues in the past?

What should I do?

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@vip-marketplace 

When this happens to a seller...And more than likely it will, the longer one sells on eBay and the more items they list, next best step is to do a bit of a search to find if there are any other similar items listed and then any documented information on counterfeits. Then call eBay early to speak to a CS for clarification.  Unfortunately, it's a firing squad mentality with "counterfeits and copyright infringement" (More info is available in eBay help). It seems to be, shoot first and ask questions later, a complaint by a competitor or something picked up randomly by the bots. Even when you feel you are 100% in the right and have done your due diligence. Best of luck with resolving. 

-Lotz

[tyler@ebay]

Hi @vip-marketplace - a listing removed via a legal notice from the verified rights owner program (link here) is usually not something that would be appealed. I don't recommend relisting the item.

While we can’t force a Rights Owner to reply to you, we can reach out to the Rights Owner on your behalf. If it has been more than 5 business days since you reached out to the Rights Owner, you can email the VeRO team at vero@ebay.com so they can reach out to the Rights Owner on your behalf. 

Thanks!

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Personally, it would be a less frustrating experience for sellers, if along with with the explanation they could be given the opportunity to fix their listing before it was "automagically disappeared" in a specified time frame or they could delete on their own fully understanding the warnings implied. Some listings require a lot of work to create and could be fixed with only minor modifications.

-Lotz

[vip-marketplace]

Yep, it seems it was removed via a legal notice from the verified rights owner program.

It's completely absurd that there's no way to fight this.

I have all the documentation showing where I bought it and the website still sells the item (same picture, title and description). And that website is very well known and would never sell any counterfeit items.

When you go on RoomMates website, the item is there with again the same picture, item number and desctiption and it's CLEARLY mentionned that this is an OFFICIALLY LICENSED Entertainment One item.

And I'm being told by eBay that I can't fight this and another random bogus accusation like this and my account will be suspended.

This is my livelihood. Not a game or a simple hobby. How is this acceptable??

[pjcdn2005]

tyler@ebay 

I seem to remember reading on the .com boards that the seller can file something called a ‘notice of appeal’ (not sure if I have the term correct) with the rights holder and that if they don’t reply, eBay may remove the violation.   Is there something like that?

[pjcdn2005]

There is an eBay seller who has quite a lot of experience with this type of situation and she has a site with info and some suggestions on what to do.  Google Tabberone to find her site. I don’t know if the site will be helpful in your situation  but it can’t hurt to look at it.

[pjcdn2005]

---

@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

When this happens to a seller...And more than likely it will, the longer one sells on eBay and the more items they list, next best step is to do a bit of a search to find if there are any other similar items listed and then any documented information on counterfeits. Then call eBay early to speak to a CS for clarification.  Unfortunately, it's a firing squad mentality with "counterfeits and copyright infringement" (More info is available in eBay help). It seems to be, shoot first and ask questions later, a complaint by a competitor or something picked up randomly by the bots. Even when you feel you are 100% in the right and have done your due diligence. Best of luck with resolving. 

-Lotz

---

It wouldn’t matter if there were a 1000 of that same item on eBay as it is the tights holder who has complained and they are the only ones who can tell ebay that the item is not counterfeit.

[tyler@ebay]

Hi @pjcdn2005!

That isn't something I can find anymore, though it may be something available as an option if the Rights Owner doesn't reply after the 5 business days. Best course of action is to email the VeRO team after that timeframe of the owner hasn't responded!

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@pjcdn2005 @vip-marketplace 

As noted above, I've seen it posted on the dot com board that sometimes it's just a competitor or a buyer that's filing complaints to cause seller grief. Or it's caused by the bots being incorrectly programmed. Rulings can be immediate. My situation was using a specific word in a listing for hats for a way to adjust the sizing. The solution was to remove that word and replace it with hook and loop as per the rights owner/eBay and all was good. Just an honest mistake. It's extremely difficult to be an expert with all items, verbiage and copyright laws.

-Lotz

[pjcdn2005]

Thanks for replying Tyler.

I just googled Vero counter notice and got a few ‘how to’ hits.  I didn’t read them but the op might want to google the same info.

[vip-marketplace]

Thanks eveybody!

I will wait a few days then contact the VeRo team and see what they can do to help.

[vip-marketplace]

Surprisingly I just got a message from eOne:

---------------------------------------------------

Thank you for contacting us regarding your recent listings on eBay.

As you will appreciate, Entertainment One has invested substantially in the protection of its valuable intellectual property rights; in the past, we have identified high volume of listings across marketplaces around the world that could potentially infringe our client’s rights. We only initiate takedowns in good faith to protect the genuine customers from the products of those seeking to abuse our client’s intellectual property rights.

If you believe the items in question are genuine, please kindly provide us with the following:

-              clear photographs of the reported items (both packaging and relevant tags on the item)

-              invoice of your purchase

-              details of your supplier

Once we have received them, we will forward them to the rights owner to verify. We understand your action to resolve this issue, and we thank you kindly for your understanding in this matter.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us via entertainmentoneenforcement(at)incoproip.com .

--------------------------------------------------

I'm so annoyed with them I find it hard to not tell them what's on my mind.

I'm selling a product that's licensed and they know it exists. They just arbitrarily decided to make a false accusation of counterfeit without even ordering the product. That can't be how it's supposed to work is it?

I sent them the information they asked for and will be waiting on their reply. I can't believe I'm the one on my knees begging them to do the right thing here.

THEY should be apologizing for putting MY LIVELIHOOD IN JEOPARDY by making false accusations. THEY are the ones wasting my time here. THEY're the one that should get sued for making me go through this for no reason and putting my seller account at risk.

I was not able to sleep last night because of this!

[pjcdn2005]

As far as I know they aren’t supposed to tell ebay something is counterfeit unless they know it is and I would be upset too.  I wonder if you could report them somehow for that.

i honestly would try not to get so stressed about it that you can’t sleep.  Just based on what I’ve seen on the boards, 2 similar violation may result in you not being able to list for a week which isn’t good but is better than being suspended.  The rules regarding that do seem to be arbitrary though.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

Time to boycott them!

[esclyons]

you would assume you are innocent until proven guilty..

just look at the Millions of fake items coming in from china.. and listed so many times, it is hard to find  the real item,from the fake, other than looking at the price.. that's the first give away, then the shipping location..  But it has been going on for years, and i don't seeing it changing anytime soon..

[hlmacdon]

There a few complicating factors. This is how some brands gate the sale of their products. People who dropship via the liquidators/smaller distributors or do the retail arbitrage game are generally not viewed in a favorable light by brands as they get protectionist over their brick and mortar retailers. IP programs like this often get used (or abused in reality) for this purpose, but the other problem is most of this is farmed out to third party agencies who have zero familiarity with the product and just perform an administrative role. I've dealt with a few in the past that required back and forth because they have no idea what the products are in the first place or licensing agreements that were in place in the past. It's a royal headache but jump through the hoops and provide what information you can.

[femmefan1946]

@vip-marketplace 

by making false accusations. THEY are the ones wasting my time here. THEY're the one that should get sued for making me go through this for no reason and putting my seller account at risk.

I certainly hope you can clear this up promptly.

If not, I think that this could be a Small Claims Court case.

Well, pretty well anything can be, I suppose.

My last SC case was over 25 years ago, in Ontario, but DD had a fenceline tree issue with a neighbour in BC last year.

The interesting part to me was that the entire case was handled by email. It took about six months to wend to its conclusionwith emails and jpegs being the basis of the decision.

(DD won. The 40' tall black walnut stayed, neighbour paid all costs.)

I think it costs more to start a case now than the $25 I paid back in the last century.

[ypdc_dennis]

For those not familar, eOne is a heavyweight player in the Canadian media market. They have their own product, but also act as Canadian distribution for a large number of companies. Listed on the London Stock Exchange with the Canada Pension Plan owning 19% of the shares.

https://en.wikipedia.or,g/wiki/Entertainment_One

My sympathies for the OP.

-..-

[rcrawford34]

My one experience with Vero was about 10 years ago

A frustrating experience but  I came out on Top in a way

I had 3 Antique Tiffany Ring Boxes That I listed on ebay.  They had a blue lining within a cardboard container. I had started them off at $9.99 U.S. a piece

When I listed mine there were about 25 other ones listed at the time

The third day they were listed they were removed. They were up to about $250.00 to $275.00 a piece

Not a Happy Camper I had a few extra hours to spend for a reply to them so did so .   I researched the boxes  they were about 75 years old  and were available across the board on the Net and offline

These were not new  but Antique  and I could find no mention of Tiffany ever having a problem with the resale of these anywhere

Wrote ebay  showing examples across the net and offline, articles discussing how collectible they were , the demand for them etc. Also discussed how their Antique Jewelry  Often shows up for resale around the world in major auctions online and off  top selling sites and businesses with apparently no problem from Tiffany

Also stated they were not new and had not been purchased new for resale. I could have understood if that was the case  

The conversation I had with them was very detailed and long

Sent it off  not knowing what was going to happen

Took about a week but got a response,   Tiffany agreed with me 

actually got a apology from them,   they had not looked at it that way and told me I was within my rights to sell them as a Antique

I was  told  I could relist these with no penalty  and they were going to update their files with  this info

Course I did  but got no where close  to what they were at during the first round. If I remember correctly got about $150 a piece

I did however got a few  emails from frustrated bidders who were not happy

Frustrating plus but at least left with the knowledge I was correct  and had not broken any guidelines

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