Competitor posing/acting as Vero agent?

[pastrami_on_rye]

Good afternoon,

Recently I've had all of my listings pulled on a particular product that I had listed on 4 different stealth accounts. The products I list are authentic and are a smaller brand, which I highly doubt would sign up to become a Vero agent, but anything is possible I suppose. Keep in mind I've been selling these products for 2+ years no problem.

Anyways, a new competitor recently entered the market selling replica versions of the item I have been selling on about 10-12 different accounts. He uses the same exact photos, description, titles, and location for each account, so that's how I know its him. His listings stay up all day, every day, since December 2017.

I received this typical removal email from eBay across all accounts:



"The rights owner or an agent authorized to act on behalf of the rights owner, *******, notified eBay that this listing violates intellectual property rights. When eBay receives a report of this type of violation, we remove the listing to comply with the law.


We encourage you to contact ********** directly if you have any questions.

You can send an email to:
***********@gmail.com"



I'm assuming this person signed up to be a Vero member that corresponds with the brand I'm selling, submitting all necessary information, which gives him the power to remove any listings he feels like. My question is, how is this possible, what kind of information do you need to submit to eBay to become a Vero member, and is it really that easy?


Any input would be appreciated, thanks.

[Gladiator]

Did you check the info, like the mark information and what not to verify it?

[pastrami_on_rye]

Originally Posted by Gladiator

Did you check the info, like the mark information and what not to verify it?

I did, and everything checks out except I couldn't find the email. The email is the only thing that seems off to me. But couldn't he just find all of the proper information and sign up to act as that particular Vero agent if they weren't already registered?

[walkingupwards]

To sign up as a Vero member you only need contact information, fax machine and a few forged documents. So if the brand you were selling is not really that famous or big, then it's way easier for your competitor to impersonate the real rights owner.

Ebay must be receiving hundreds of Vero applications and I am dead sure they don't have the means to verify if the info they get is real or not unless they're dealing with a major brand.

To make things even worse, Ebay would only give the seller, in the case of a Vero take down, very few info about the brand owner who filed the report (i.e: an E-mail address in most cases). When you get back to Ebay and tell them that the brand owner is not answering your messages, they also don't give a damn and state that they can't determine whether your product was legit or not and you're simply not allowed to relist the item on their website anymore without the permission of the alleged IP owner.

The funny and tragic thing about Ebay is that despite all their "efforts" to fight replicas, the marketplace nowadays is living off replicas.

I am currently doing my best to grow my capital in the hope that I will be able to move completely to Amazon in the near future. I have been watching some Amazon sellers and doing business there seems more lucrative if all done correctly. Plus Amazon buyer-base does not seem to be so f cheap as the Ebay one.

Ebay states in clear words that your listings might get pulled down by rights owners even though your product might be 100% legit.


Anyway, in your situation I guess it's best to contact the real brand owner and check with them if that e-mail is really theirs. If it's not, try to get a written confirmation and get in touch with Ebay and hope they will take action against that bogus Vero report.


Good luck!

[ebaystealth1974]

Originally Posted by walkingupwards

Anyway, in your situation I guess it's best to contact the real brand owner and check with them if that e-mail is really theirs.

A brand with an "@GMAIL.COM" email address? I wouldn't hold my breath on that being legit lol

[pastrami_on_rye]

Thanks for the responses. Looks like theres not much I can do in this situation...

[walkingupwards]

Originally Posted by pastrami_on_rye

Thanks for the responses. Looks like theres not much I can do in this situation...

At least get in touch with real brand owner and double-check that e-mail address!

[yankee]

It does not cost anything to become a Vero Agent on ebay. The process is quite simple. If that is a competitor, he/she, is a bold yet pretty smart one!

[Gladiator]

I would just file a counterclaim to it. If it’s legit they will contact you directly, if not, you’re good as eBay will drop the strike.

[ebaystealth1974]

Yall really think it's real with a gmail email address? That's non-professional as phuck.

[yankee]

Originally Posted by Gladiator

I would just file a counterclaim to it. If it’s legit they will contact you directly, if not, you’re good as eBay will drop the strike.

Have you had success with this ON EBAY?

[Gladiator]

Originally Posted by yankee

Have you had success with this ON EBAY?

I have. I’ve done this on amazon and Etsy too.

And for the unprofessional email, I use a gmail on most of my takedowns as I get threats and am a small brand. I can keep my messages in the cloud easier and send them to counsel. Just an FYI.

[ebaystealth1974]

Right, but an ACTUAL brand usually has an @websitename.com email address.

[yankee]

I also just leave mine with @gmail I never cared at all about changing it to a domain name.

[Gladiator]

Originally Posted by ebaystealth1974

Right, but an ACTUAL brand usually has an @websitename.com email address.

I have a website and email, but I don’t like using it for non-license and promo things. They said this was a small brand, so I assumed it was like how mine is. They may use it for things like this. I’m not ready to call it ⊗⊗⊗⊗ until they contact or file a counterclaim.

[ebaystealth1974]

I've literally NEVER taken anyone, or any business serious when they email me from mycoolstuff@gmail

But that's just me!

[Gladiator]

Well I’m emailing to take listings down that are selling illegally, so I don’t care if they take me seriously at that point. When they get sued they will damn well take me serious.

[ebaystealth1974]

Originally Posted by Gladiator

Well I’m emailing to take listings down that are selling illegally, so I don’t care if they take me seriously at that point.

Sounds contradictory. Maybe they'd take you more serious if the email was from copyrights@brandIrippedoff.com or similar?

Again, maybe it's just me... but if I was selling phake iphone cables and received an email from applecables@gmail.com, I'd tell them to phuck off... no way it's real!

[Gladiator]

Originally Posted by ebaystealth1974

Sounds contradictory. Maybe they'd take you more serious if the email was from copyrights@brandIrippedoff.com or similar?

Again, maybe it's just me... but if I was selling phake iphone cables and received an email from applecables@gmail.com, I'd tell them to phuck off... no way it's real!

Not really. I’ve done both and both emails got me:

Death threats
Rape threats
Calls to my home
DDos attacks
....etc

Gmail, cloud storage, easy forwarding to counsel without using third party mail apps and IMAP works for me. I’m not going to further justify myself or business here, but many people and many businesses use off-site emails and if you think it’s not serious put them back up, get another strike and lose your shops.

[ebaystealth1974]

Originally Posted by Gladiator

Not really. I’ve done both and both emails got me:

Death threats
Rape threats
Calls to my home
DDos attacks
....etc

Dayuuum! Nevermind, then!

[Gladiator]

Originally Posted by ebaystealth1974

Dayuuum! Nevermind, then!

Etsy supplies my phone number, which I use a dedicated business line. I love the messages threatening to beat me to death or have their uncle come by and show me how much of a b word I am. I dunno why it’s always the uncle, ha. But yeah, my industry is full of nutters. I should have contacted them first and ask politely to stop using my images. Silly me.

[GreenBean]

Originally Posted by Gladiator

I would just file a counterclaim to it. If it’s legit they will contact you directly, if not, you’re good as eBay will drop the strike.

There used to be a specific code for sellers to do this.

Do not let someone take away your business.