Multiple Accounts Targeted by Competitor Stating Items are Counterfeit.

[agent006140]

Originally Posted by phaz0rz

You two are just trying to steal his business

we will then run into the same problem.
just try to understand her situation better

[rsot]

Originally Posted by phaz0rz

You two are just trying to steal his business

Morning chuckles - category would be fine.

[hello1212]

Originally Posted by rsot

across 5 accounts is somewhat unlikely.

I had similar issues with genuine items being removed for counterfeit policy.

It's a hit or miss, I included receipt, all the labels, everything clearly in HD, didn't matter.

It could be reports, but it could also be ebay's AI systems, something triggering it, something it doesn't like.. Idk

I made 2 manual appeals for separate items and they rejected it, even calling them they still said they stand by their decision.

The way I view it, if your selling anything that is even slightly something they don't like they will remove it, they already make enough money so they don't care if its even remotely deemed as risky.

With items that have been strike'd I just give up on them and sell something else, no point fighting it trust me you'll waste your time and risk ban

[agent006140]

I believe it is Tiffany who took Ebay to court.by allowing counterfeits to be sold on EBay,it is false advertising on Ebay part,but the judge said it is the brand name company which should make sure no counterfeits are being sold,not the venue,
Since then,brand names come to Ebay and remove listings ,Ebay is not going to fight them.
Thats why I asked what is OP selling,it could be the brand company which remove all his items across 5 accounts.
And there is no way to appeal.

[hello1212]

Originally Posted by agent006140

I believe it is Tiffany who took Ebay to court.by allowing counterfeits to be sold on EBay,it is false advertising on Ebay part,but the judge said it is the brand name company which should make sure no counterfeits are being sold,not the venue,
Since then,brand names come to Ebay and remove listings ,Ebay is not going to fight them.
Thats why I asked what is OP selling,it could be the brand company which remove all his items across 5 accounts.
And there is no way to appeal.

Yep, it does make sense they are paranoid against lawsuits..

They also care more about their image/status before anything else, they make good money so it's nothing for them to remove listings even if they are slightly off but nothing actually wrong with them, that's my conclusion

[rsot]

Originally Posted by hello1212

With items that have been strike'd I just give up on them and sell something else, no point fighting it trust me you'll waste your time and risk ban

Solid view and approach.

[vettefever17]

Originally Posted by Boogie_Woogie_MAn

Ebay has removed hundreds of mine and other sellers who sell similar products.

We think they have all been reported by a competitor. I have received load off counterfeit emails after the first one each email has said "other then what was communicated to you previously, no additional actions actions are being placed on your account" Will this just go on indefinitely with the warnings?

I always thought you received an educational warning, then the warning, then 3 day bad, 7 day ban, 10 day ban and sometimes 30 day ban before being suspended? But we just keep getting the same message.

The new VERO removal warning can be different, as you mentioned. It has no warning constraints. I believe VERO rolls off after a long time for trusted older accounts. But you will notice, if you get another VERO pull within say 3 months, it will start the clock for the day limit restrictions.

[phaz0rz]

Originally Posted by vettefever17

The new VERO removal warning can be different, as you mentioned. It has no warning constraints. I believe VERO rolls off after a long time for trusted older accounts. But you will notice, if you get another VERO pull within say 3 months, it will start the clock for the day limit restrictions.

They don't fall off anymore. If you get a listing removed it stays in your "inactive listings" for as long as the account is active, with a note saying that the listing had a policy violation. You're able to delete other inactive listings but not ones with violations.

[Boogie_Woogie_MAn]

It does drop off after 3 months.

Originally Posted by phaz0rz

They don't fall off anymore. If you get a listing removed it stays in your "inactive listings" for as long as the account is active, with a note saying that the listing had a policy violation. You're able to delete other inactive listings but not ones with violations.

[phaz0rz]

Alright, if you say so.

[hello1212]

Originally Posted by Boogie_Woogie_MAn

It does drop off after 3 months.

Can also confirm at least on ebay UK taken down listings do vanish from inactive after a while, it's what I've noticed.. didn't know it was 3 months, thanks for the tip

[solefoodbk]

This actually just happened to me for one listing. I could easily attribute this to my overall selling patterns which has not been great last 3 months. I had uptick in INRC, and late shipments, also fell out of TRS. I know one of these itself doesn't cause a listing removal but its a pattern of higher risk problems that maybe adds a bot to review the listings.

I also had to fix like 300+ listings all in a day that were listed back through API. Due to the listing variation custom field I could no longer modify any listings under the old paradigm.

All the removals from 2024-2025 I had clearly stated a email of who reported the listing. This did not, it just extended a sentence explaining this was done through AI and automation.

As I have believed since 2023, and it's been ongoing since 2019, there is a time limit we all have on eBay. It only gets harder, and while I still make more now than I ever used to I don't foresee myself in 15 years operating like I do now, or even selling on eBay. Thats why most of my income is saved and used to build outside of eBay like my own website or thinking of other things. It can still be used as a marketplace but for those who rely on this as 100% of their net income that just seems highly foolish.

It used to be you got like 2 of these strikes in a short period and eBay warns you, maybe stops you from listing new items for 24 hours, then a week, then a month. For all the removals from 2024-2025 some occurred multiple times in the month, from one particular company and I never got a warning or anything like in the past. I think their systems and operations is a lot different than it used to be.

[Boogie_Woogie_MAn]

I know this as well, as I have another vero warning just over 3 months after the last one and it went back to the initial "as you way not be aware" message

Originally Posted by hello1212

Can also confirm at least on ebay UK taken down listings do vanish from inactive after a while, it's what I've noticed.. didn't know it was 3 months, thanks for the tip

[phaz0rz]

Y'all are right, they do disappear from inactive listings after 90 days. My bad for saying something inaccurate.


Still though, better believe those violations remain visible on the back end for as long as the account is active.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by Boogie_Woogie_MAn

I know this as well, as I have another vero warning just over 3 months after the last one and it went back to the initial "as you way not be aware" message

Nice clarification hmm

[hello1212]

Originally Posted by Boogie_Woogie_MAn

It's not. I did a test and you can report an item and ebay just removes it.

No, not all the time, it's heavily dependent on the specific item and the factors agent stated, also how the listing was listed.. (details)

I've reported listings that were actual replicas and ebay wrote back to me saying something along the lines of "We found nothing wrong with the listing etc etc., therefore no action was taken".

That was because the good I reported wasn't branded under the OEM brand in item specifics, also logos were blurred.

[hello1212]

Originally Posted by phaz0rz

Y'all are right, they do disappear from inactive listings after 90 days. My bad for saying something inaccurate.


Still though, better believe those violations remain visible on the back end for as long as the account is active.

Oh for sure, but it does seem they are more lenient these days if your seller performance is favourable..

Sometimes these strikes can genuinely be an innocent mistake, being unaware so they understand this factor I believe.

Also with it being gone from the inactive section, I also believe it resets your warning cycle for future violations, in my opinion..

[kirkland]

Originally Posted by hello1212

"This determination was made using automation or artificial intelligence. This came to our attention through automated detection."

Key note - man this AI BS will be the end of me

that means it wasnt another user who reported you. it was a bot. there is no competitor reporting you, the fact that your listings are coming down just means the bot is hitting everyone

happens all the time, sometimes more than others

[kirkland]

Also, phaz0rz is right. In my experience infractions don't necessarily cycle out anymore. That used to be the case, but Ive had an account whose last restriction was April 2025 and that just got hit with another VERO last month which cued a 10d restriction

In my experience though, their tally count is also often very shoddy, so YMMV. Ive had one email penalize me restricting me for 7d (with warnings that the next restriction would be for 10d), and yet the next restriction I got was only for 3d. They appear to have lost count of my other infractions, and this has happened across a #of accounts for me (I have about 20, so not an insignificant sample size)

This could be why the one poster who previously got a restriction only received the "you may not be aware" message with their next infraction. eBay is super inconsistent with how they count these alleged infractions

[vettefever17]

Originally Posted by phaz0rz

They don't fall off anymore. If you get a listing removed it stays in your "inactive listings" for as long as the account is active, with a note saying that the listing had a policy violation. You're able to delete other inactive listings but not ones with violations.

I'm not saying they drop off completely. They obviously stay because they know if you relist the same item. I think the day restrictions restart for VERO strikes in general after so long. So, you would go back to stage one of warnings like "we removed this don't worry, 3-day, 7-day, 30-day, after say 6-12 months with no strikes.

[hello1212]

Originally Posted by kirkland

that means it wasnt another user who reported you. it was a bot. there is no competitor reporting you, the fact that your listings are coming down just means the bot is hitting everyone

happens all the time, sometimes more than others

Yep this is true, their AI system is terribly inaccurate honestly.

[solefoodbk]

Maybe as a collective we can figure out whats going on because I will be sharing some very odd details that maybe make you all question things relating your account if it's happened to you as well.

1) I am using Claude to build me an app to basically automate my business.

2) Since July/August I have been using API, more heavily last month.

3) Now this is the interesting part. I had to fix all my listings as I suggested in my previous post. I did a test with one of my listings to see if this process worked, and the very listing we tested, is the exact same listing that got removed last month.

4) More insight, I have had two additional occasions from eBay reporting this brand. It is all this brand, with one exception of a different brand but that was a item I sold recently.

5) The biggest puzzle I do not get, and most concerning. They're reporting listings I already ended. I saw this happen years ago from a brand doing it. I just used ChaptGPT to check another account who sells this brand, turns out that listing was removed. ChatGPT could still see it though because it uses a different way to search.

6) All the listings being reported are all OLD ITEM NUMBERS. One of the listings that got removed tonight had two additional cycles. Meaning I ended that listing, did sell similar -> ended that listing with my process and listed it again to fix the custom variations.

So basically all the listings for me getting flagged are old item numbers nothing even currently active in my shop. Which means even if I end the listings they can still bomb me and f*ck me over. I really didn't expect to find this, Claude did when I asked for it to review everything going on.

Update: I had one listing removed on last month, and this was "removed" using eBay's words. The two other times I have been hit they used the word "hid", and all listings subject to this attack are connected to a sale. I haven't found a pattern within that yet, but all following listings (22) are old item numbers and all old sales. I did relist these items so they were active in my shop just under a different item number. I am pretty sure there is some type of pattern going on now. I just don't understand what yet caused this.

I am not going to spam this anymore but I found additional things, namely that each following run that happened in total 4 times, goes back in order from date of creation. Just to use made up dates, example 1) march 20th, 2025 2) april 5th, 2025 and so on. Each batch of reported listings that all were old item numbers, went in order from dates created. The last reported listings that hit me tonight were most recent dating to around the early 2026 when I created the listings. I'd never have spot these things, I asked Claude to specifically look for patterns. It already has most of my sales data as is.

The question remains if anything I'm saying can compare to anyone else. If others who are facing this can either check themselves or use an AI to do it, that could move this at least from no understanding to partially understanding how eBay is doing this.

I know as well they increase security around this time and knowing they use AI and likely experiment with it, they're probably not even knowing all the wrong listings getting flagged. F*cking eBay.