Recieved cease and desist letter

[spk]

Small update: The whole situation is over by now. The trademark owner sent me a cease-and-desist letter. The resulting costs were calculated based on the profit I had made. Luckily, they didn’t know the exact numbers, so I was able to provide my own figures. I had to pay just under €3k, including legal fees. The public prosecutor’s office reached an out-of-court agreement with my lawyer for an €8k fine, so the matter is now resolved. I was lucky that no other brands decided to take action against me. It was an expensive lesson, but I’m very relieved that it’s finally over and that it ended relatively mildly.

[murdered_by_ebay]

it is better to run such a business outside germany , you could still sell to german customers

[agent006140]

Originally Posted by murdered_by_ebay

it is better to run such a business outside germany , you could still sell to german customers

are you kidding?
I would stop selling those products,she is now being 'watched' /stalked.
One can easily recognise by her 'MO'/
BTW,this thread is dated,AMZN has asked its sellers to take out insurance.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by spk

Small update: The whole situation is over by now. The trademark owner sent me a cease-and-desist letter. The resulting costs were calculated based on the profit I had made. Luckily, they didn’t know the exact numbers, so I was able to provide my own figures. I had to pay just under €3k, including legal fees. The public prosecutor’s office reached an out-of-court agreement with my lawyer for an €8k fine, so the matter is now resolved. I was lucky that no other brands decided to take action against me. It was an expensive lesson, but I’m very relieved that it’s finally over and that it ended relatively mildly.

Thanks for sharing the experience and good that you got it resolved.

[murdered_by_ebay]

Originally Posted by agent006140

are you kidding?
I would stop selling those products,she is now being 'watched' /stalked.
One can easily recognise by her 'MO'/
BTW,this thread is dated,AMZN has asked its sellers to take out insurance.

that stuff happens in germany all the time , had the guy been nearby , netherlands , belgium , poland - nothing of that sort would have happened

[rsot]

Sending you a dm spk

[agent006140]

Originally Posted by murdered_by_ebay

that stuff happens in germany all the time , had the guy been nearby , netherlands , belgium , poland - nothing of that sort would have happened

true,she may not get much sales either,I think she is printing German car logos on her Chinese T shirts,they selll well in Germany,not Poland or Antartica

[rsot]

Originally Posted by agent006140

true,she may not get much sales either,I think she is printing German car logos on her Chinese T shirts,they selll well in Germany,not Poland or Antartica

Since you're trying for the use of she, maybe best to use s/he, agent

[murdered_by_ebay]

Originally Posted by agent006140

true,she may not get much sales either,I think she is printing German car logos on her Chinese T shirts,they selll well in Germany,not Poland or Antartica

damn I did not know poland does not allow shipping to germany , must be retaliation for WWII

[spk]

I'm a he I already told you that recently. I suspect the reason they noticed me was because my shop had a very strong Google ranking. I was ranking #1 for keywords like “brandname t shirt” almost everywhere, even ahead of the official sellers. And I wasn’t only offering T-shirts I also sold stickers, mugs, and other products. I overdid it with the shirts though, and I think that was the breaking point.

There are many people who have been selling only stickers for years, and that probably doesn’t bother them as much. By the way, from the outside it wasn’t obvious that the shop was operated from Germany. I even had a rented Lithuanian address in the imprint.

[murdered_by_ebay]

outside does not matter much , they file a police report and find out your data. as soon as they see it is in germany the game is on , if it is abroad they let go most of the time but even if not it is really only germany doing house searches in bulk

[jcdev]

Originally Posted by spk

my shop had a very strong Google ranking. I was ranking #1 for keywords like “brandname t shirt” almost everywhere, even ahead of the official sellers.

How did you manage to get such high SEO ranking?

[rsot]

Originally Posted by jcdev

How did you manage to get such high SEO ranking?

Not sure if spk is still active here

[spk]

Originally Posted by jcdev

How did you manage to get such high SEO ranking?

That was actually quite easy. Most competing shops were so poorly optimized for SEO that it was enough to publish a few articles and build backlinks through a PBN network. On top of that, this was around the time AI became widely available, and I was one of the first to use it for all of my product descriptions and off-page SEO content. Back then, that gave a huge ranking boost.

In the end, it got to the point where my shop ranked highly for almost every keyword I targeted on Google, including highly competitive terms like "brake caliper paint" in Germany.

I never spent any money on advertising. Everything was organic, and at my peak I was getting around 5,000–10,000 visitors per day with roughly 500 products in the shop.

[hello1212]

Originally Posted by SaiJin

You guys in UK and EU sounds like the cops have access to everything?

I know it's an old post, maybe EU not UK, they are clueless over here

[agent006140]

Quite a few brand names are active on Ebay.com-Tiffany,Rolex,Prada,Leica,Meissen,MSFT, Chanel and more!
Some one was asking on another thread,what kind of documents work ?
A family who sells Chanel products on Ebay,claiming they go to Paris every summer and buy Chanel products on sale,presented credit card receipts and store invoices ,EBay/Chanel reject them all,Chanel never go on sale and sell their products on their own store and site.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by agent006140

A family who sells Chanel products on Ebay,claiming they go to Paris every summer and buy Chanel products on sale,presented credit card receipts and store invoices ,EBay/Chanel reject them all,Chanel never go on sale and sell their products on their own store and site.

Where is your source for this story?

[agent006140]

The seller was complaining on Ebay seller forum.

[agent006140]

Originally Posted by SaiJin

it's scary enough the feds actually knocked on his doors

Knocking is better than kicking the door open.
They dont just come to your house or shop,they are known to visit fairs and trade shows to find the manufacturer,distributor,

[rsot]

Originally Posted by agent006140

The seller was complaining on Ebay seller forum.

Hmm interesting - I don't read those complaints so link to be found

[agent006140]

Originally Posted by agent006140

The seller was complaining on Ebay seller forum.

I have seen those listings on Ebay,they sell well until Ebay removed them.