Competitor reporting my listings under false rights owner, how is this possible?

[sugarlaces]

Competitor using dirty tactics has removed several of my listings by saying they are rights owner. I own the ipo rights and is registered trademark and for anyone trying to register similar or like for like it would go through examination and I would be notified.
All previous sales history gone, spoke with Ebay who are not helpful insist they do thorough checks for such claims and the Vero rights owner and said it would go to investigation. But all sales history lost and competitor wins. Anyone with similar experience please advise.
How can I prove this and who to contact ?

[unkown5454]

Are you registered with Ve.Ro program? Same thing happened to me but still waiting on my tra.de.mark approval.

Dozens of other sellers with the same product to this day, but I was the #1 seller for this product. Was hit with 2 fa.ke takedowns. Ve.Ro team said they cannot help me and that I must take any legal issues and deal with them outside of EB.

EB customer service also made bogus claims that they were "investigating" on multiple phone calls and nothing ever happened of course.

[sugarlaces]

Yes registered with Vero and been approved on their program many months back.
Thought it was watertight.
I was also the top selling with my products too but I am not sure is Usa rules differ from uk.

[unkown5454]

Regardless of what is sold, this is the 3rd post on this forum about this issue in 2 weeks. More people are beginning to realize that EB is letting anyone make fa.ke claims to take down competitors.

But, OP said they are rights owner and have registered with Ve.Ro which makes things even worse. It clearly shows EB does not check a d.a.mn thing with any of these claims and that it's purely automated.

The big issue is that it seems anyone can register with Ve.Ro, maybe even with fa.ke or simply copied/stolen information from a real company with whatever existing trad.emark, then just run around EB taking down every competitor. EB turns a blind eye claiming they don't want to be responsible for legal issues, but then at the same time is being totally complicit with fa.ke DMCA takedowns which is not legal. So, how long before it gets out of control?

[sugarlaces]

Originally Posted by unkown5454

Regardless of what is sold, this is the 3rd post on this forum about this issue in 2 weeks. More people are beginning to realize that EB is letting anyone make fa.ke claims to take down competitors.

But, OP said they are rights owner and have registered with Ve.Ro which makes things even worse. It clearly shows EB does not check a d.a.mn thing with any of these claims and that it's purely automated.

The big issue is that it seems anyone can register with Ve.Ro, maybe even with fa.ke or simply copied/stolen information from a real company with whatever existing trad.emark, then just run around EB taking down every competitor. EB turns a blind eye claiming they don't want to be responsible for legal issues, but then at the same time is being totally complicit with fa.ke DMCA takedowns which is not legal. So, how long before it gets out of control?

Update-I appealed and they apologised in error. Items show in ended which means you lose all your previous sales history which is what competitor would be happy about, to top that additional sponsored ad costs now and offshore ebnay wrote back said rights owner might report you again whereas they saw proof of my Vero program.

[bigdaz]

you could always just take more pics which they cant make the claim on? put a small watermark on it?

[unkown5454]

Originally Posted by sugarlaces

Update-I appealed and they apologised in error. Items show in ended which means you lose all your previous sales history which is what competitor would be happy about, to top that additional sponsored ad costs now and offshore ebnay wrote back said rights owner might report you again whereas they saw proof of my Vero program.

EB apologized and admitted the error?

[sugarlaces]

Originally Posted by unkown5454

EB apologized and admitted the error?

yes, apology and told me to relist.
We can understand this matter is frustrating for you however I am afraid the VeRO team are not in a position to offer any legal advise as we are not trained to do this. We understand you have said this is your competitor however at the time your listing was removed there was a claim submitted under the penalty of perjury declaration therefore we were legally obliged to remove the listing. I can understand the sales history of the item is lost once we remove the item from the site. We can only apologise for this inconvenience caused.

We will be sure to make sure no further listings are removed from your account in error unless the evidence is there to support the claim. We wish you all the best in selling on ebay going forward.

Thanks for your cooperation and understanding.

Upon relisting, and BOOM 5 days later which happened to be my best sales day they removed the listings again.
Once again submitted appeal and it is approved, I have contacted Ipo to ask for written proof that is competitor is not on ipo anywhere in uk for a trademark which is similar in name or product to mine. Ebay replied as
Please understand that we are unable to discuss a member's account with another member. We hope this assures you that your account information will also remain private.

So looks like its a no win situation, will keep getting removed, restored, apology relist.

[sugarlaces]

Originally Posted by bigdaz

you could always just take more pics which they cant make the claim on? put a small watermark on it?

my keywords are one top searches on Ebay which is the trademark, others use the trademark without copying our product image or labelling and get away with it as Ebay won't remove those listings of others as say its not counterfeit.
so watermarking wouldn't help it, thanks all the same.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by sugarlaces

my keywords are one top searches on Ebay which is the trademark, others use the trademark without copying our product image or labelling and get away with it as Ebay won't remove those listings of others as say its not counterfeit.
so watermarking wouldn't help it, thanks all the same.

Wow duly noted - watermarking used to have more power

[unkown5454]

Originally Posted by sugarlaces

yes, apology and told me to relist.
We can understand this matter is frustrating for you however I am afraid the VeRO team are not in a position to offer any legal advise as we are not trained to do this. We understand you have said this is your competitor however at the time your listing was removed there was a claim submitted under the penalty of perjury declaration therefore we were legally obliged to remove the listing. I can understand the sales history of the item is lost once we remove the item from the site. We can only apologise for this inconvenience caused.

We will be sure to make sure no further listings are removed from your account in error unless the evidence is there to support the claim. We wish you all the best in selling on ebay going forward.

Thanks for your cooperation and understanding.

Upon relisting, and BOOM 5 days later which happened to be my best sales day they removed the listings again.
Once again submitted appeal and it is approved, I have contacted Ipo to ask for written proof that is competitor is not on ipo anywhere in uk for a trademark which is similar in name or product to mine. Ebay replied as
Please understand that we are unable to discuss a member's account with another member. We hope this assures you that your account information will also remain private.

So looks like its a no win situation, will keep getting removed, restored, apology relist.

that is exactly what they sent to me. and the listings keep getting taken down with false claims and i was told by Ve.RO team there is nothing i can do but sue the company in court outside of EB.

[sugarlaces]

Originally Posted by unkown5454

that is exactly what they sent to me. and the listings keep getting taken down with false claims and i was told by Ve.RO team there is nothing i can do but sue the company in court outside of EB.

I have emailed ipo to confirm proof no such trademark of theirs exists so see if that works?
Did you prove otherwise ?

[sugarlaces]

Originally Posted by tinsoldier

VeRO is a global brand protection programme. Just because a mark isn't registered in the UK with the IPO means nothing.

Lets not forget that globally vero covers not only registered trademarks but many other forms of intellectual property such as patents, design, images.

In the past I've been attacked by a seller who did just as you, registered a word with the UK IPO and got my listing removed. Clearly they didn't own the right to the goods I was selling, just a keyword they'd got past the IPO.

When sellers start playing this 'its mine' ownership game it never ends up in an amicable handshake. All you'll do is continue to try and take take each other down.

I contacted ipo uk via telephone and they confirmed with me no registered or applied for trademark nor could it be as what they are claiming is a directive, making a statement claim and any dummy would know it can't be registered except for Ebay. My trademark is an actual name and was one of the most popular Usa searches.

Now the competitor is using new tactics, reporting listings as medical and prescription, and Ebay now are saying we can only offer uk shipping not worldwide which did make up a good portion of sales daily. They have taken down many also of other competitors, I see some still survive could that be down to they have 6 figure feedbacks and favouritismof their fees ?