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eBay Remains a Safe Haven for Selling Counterfeit Goods

truthatallcost

truthatallcost

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The eBay counterfeit product listings reflect actual sales of over 500,000 counterfeit items to eBay consumers. Particularly shocking is the investigation focused on less than a dozen items. Not purses, watches or fakes shoes, but items consumers wouldn’t suspect. The majority were fake – easily identifiable items that don’t exist in the manufacturer’s authentic product line, but bear the manufacturer’s trademark.

The Counterfeit Report purchased and received over 2,000 manufacturer confirmed counterfeit and fake products from eBay sellers. While the eBay sellers usually remain, eBay chose to block The Counterfeit Report’s accounts and test purchases in an effort to end the whistleblower activity. Negative “counterfeit” feedback left by The Counterfeit Report for the counterfeit sellers was removed by eBay.
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The actual number of counterfeit goods sold in a day on eBay must be in the millions. I'd never trust eBay enough to shop there.

Do you care that there's so many counterfeit products on the market? What should be done?

Thoughts?
Comments?

500,000 Counterfeit Products Sold to eBay Consumers (NASDAQ: EBAY) - 24/7 Wall St.
 
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truthatallcost said:
The actual number of counterfeit goods sold in a day on eBay must be in the millions. I'd never trust eBay enough to shop there.

Do you care that there's so many counterfeit products on the market? What should be done?

Thoughts?
Comments?
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They aren't doing a very good of self-policing. Shame on them. EBay should have, and maybe it does have, a Problem Resolutiom Department that has clawback powers to manage the cheaters.

I remember one small claims case where the purchaser had to SUE a seller when the purchaser bought a Smartphone for 1/3 price. What the purchaser received was a PHOTOGRAPH of a Smartphone, box open with cover displayed and all accessories in the box. The seller's defense was that the photo on EBay was what had been purchased...not a real phone.

Obviously, seller lost the case. But EBay should have handled this situation and blackballed that seller. Terrible customer service.

Compare that to Amazon's fabulous service, and why would anyone shop anywhere else?
 
truthatallcost said:
The actual number of counterfeit goods sold in a day on eBay must be in the millions. I'd never trust eBay enough to shop there.

Do you care that there's so many counterfeit products on the market? What should be done?

Thoughts?
Comments?
Click to expand...

I buy and sell on eBay from time to time. All you have to do is research what you're buying. If you're gullible, you'll be taken either on or off line. I've never bought a counterfeit product on eBay, because I don't buy crap that could be counterfeited in the first place. If you're buying a (fill in the blank) for $10.00 that normally costs $150.00, that's called a clue.
 
MaggieD said:
They aren't doing a very good of self-policing. Shame on them. EBay should have, and maybe it does have, a Problem Resolutiom Department that has clawback powers to manage the cheaters.

I remember one small claims case where the purchaser had to SUE a seller when the purchaser bought a Smartphone for 1/3 price. What the purchaser received was a PHOTOGRAPH of a Smartphone, box open with cover displayed and all accessories in the box. The seller's defense was that the photo on EBay was what had been purchased...not a real phone.

Obviously, seller lost the case. But EBay should have handled this situation and blackballed that seller. Terrible customer service.

Compare that to Amazon's fabulous service, and why would anyone shop anywhere else?
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I have no idea what the OP story's authors did to get kicked off eBay, but as an eBay seller I have to guarantee my stuff because eBay has a buyer protection service that requires me to repay any money I get if I sell a piece of crap to someone. Here's a link to just part of what they do for buyers: eBay Money Back Guarantee | eBay
 
Beaudreaux said:
I have no idea what the OP story's authors did to get kicked off eBay, but as an eBay seller I have to guarantee my stuff because eBay has a buyer protection service that requires me to repay any money I get if I sell a piece of crap to someone. Here's a link to just part of what they do for buyers: eBay Money Back Guarantee | eBay
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That's good to know, Beaudreaux. Thank you!
 
Beaudreaux said:
I have no idea what the OP story's authors did to get kicked off eBay, but as an eBay seller I have to guarantee my stuff because eBay has a buyer protection service that requires me to repay any money I get if I sell a piece of crap to someone. Here's a link to just part of what they do for buyers: eBay Money Back Guarantee | eBay
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They were kicked off eBay for compiling a list of sellers dealing in counterfeit items, and forwarding it to eBay.
 
MaggieD said:
They aren't doing a very good of self-policing. Shame on them. EBay should have, and maybe it does have, a Problem Resolutiom Department that has clawback powers to manage the cheaters.
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eBay executives know that counterfeit items are being sold, and they're happy reap the profits. They've been sued multiple times in class action lawsuits, and had to pay out millions, but it's still a worthwhile trade-off considering the profit they're making from counterfeit goods.

eBay's main rivals, Amazon and AliBaba also sell counterfeit goods, so there's really no incentive for eBay to crack down on counterfeit sellers.

I remember one small claims case where the purchaser had to SUE a seller when the purchaser bought a Smartphone for 1/3 price. What the purchaser received was a PHOTOGRAPH of a Smartphone, box open with cover displayed and all accessories in the box. The seller's defense was that the photo on EBay was what had been purchased...not a real phone.
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This is an old scam, in fact my dad fell for this scam when he was a kid; he sent off for 100 little green army men, and they took his money and sent him a picture of 100 little green army men.



Compare that to Amazon's fabulous service, and why would anyone shop anywhere else?
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Completely agree that Amazon is a much better site. Amazon has its share of counterfeit sellers as well, but their customer service is way better than eBay.
 
joG said:
I do care, but don't think that it should be the marketplace that polices the people using it.
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I think we're so swamped with fake goods at this point, that controlling the flow of counterfeits is impossible at the present time. We'd need the Chinese government to get involved and raid factories that produce fake goods, and that's just not going to happen, the Chinese economy benefits too much from counterfeits for their government to step in.
 
truthatallcost said:
I think we're so swamped with fake goods at this point, that controlling the flow of counterfeits is impossible at the present time. We'd need the Chinese government to get involved and raid factories that produce fake goods, and that's just not going to happen, the Chinese economy benefits too much from counterfeits for their government to step in.
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There is also the problem that to the Chinese those goods are not counterfeit, they are the real deal, even supported by the Chinese government. China has one of the worst intellectual property systems in the world.
 
truthatallcost said:
They were kicked off eBay for compiling a list of sellers dealing in counterfeit items, and forwarding it to eBay.
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That's what they say was the reason. It's been my experience that eBay is a lot like DP in this regard - if you break the rules enough times, you get the boot. I have a feeling that this group is not telling the entire truth about what happened, and why it happened.
 
Carjosse said:
There is also the problem that to the Chinese those goods are not counterfeit, they are the real deal, even supported by the Chinese government. China has one of the worst intellectual property systems in the world.
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Chinese society values financial success as being more important than ingenuity or creativity. A man who runs several factories that produce counterfeit goods is seen as being smarter than the man who actually designed the original goods that are being counterfeited.

Profit reigns supreme in China. You can steal other people's ideas, pay low wages to your workers, force them to work 16 hour days, and still be seen as a pillar of the community, as long as you are financially successful.
 
Beaudreaux said:
I buy and sell on eBay from time to time. All you have to do is research what you're buying. If you're gullible, you'll be taken either on or off line. I've never bought a counterfeit product on eBay, because I don't buy crap that could be counterfeited in the first place. If you're buying a (fill in the blank) for $10.00 that normally costs $150.00, that's called a clue.
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I buy quite a bit onllne and have never (yet) been cheated. Simple things, like oil filters for small engines or replacement blades/belts for a lawn tractor, cost way too much in "big box" (Lowe's, Home Depot, Sears or Walmart) stores and even more in "specialty" (dealer/repair) shops. I have yet to get a misrepresented or mislabeled item and always save money (sometimes as much as 60%).
 
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Beaudreaux said:
That's what they say was the reason. It's been my experience that eBay is a lot like DP in this regard - if you break the rules enough times, you get the boot. I have a feeling that this group is not telling the entire truth about what happened, and why it happened.
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You're wrong.

eBay admitted that they banned the whistleblower. EBay lied and said it was a case of mistaken identity.

"When a consumer watchdog organization alerted eBay that it had found hundreds of counterfeits on the site, eBay blocked the whistleblower's accounts and removed its comments warning people about fake products.

It did this instead of removing the fake products and blocking the sellers of them.

The company, The Counterfeit Report, had just completed a 9-month investigation into counterfeit products being sold on eBay, publisher Craig Crosby, told Business Insider. It had discovered 250 of them, verifying that each one was a fake with the manufacturer."
eBay Admits It Banned A Whistleblower - Business Insider
 
ttwtt78640 said:
I buy quite a bit onllne and have never (yet) been cheated. Simple things, like oil filters for small engines or replacement blades/belts for a lawn tractor, cost way too much in "big box" (Lowe's, Home Depot, Sears or Walmart) stores and even more in "specialty" (dealer/repair) shops. I have yet to get a misrepresented or mislabeled item and always save money (sometimes as much as 60%).
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60% is not unreasonable to believe. I've bought all my equipment replacement and service parts online. I've sold a number of trucks, and heavy equipment in eBay, and the sales went just fine. I've also bought some equipment on eBay, and the purchases went just fine as well.

However, I don't buy stuff from Asia, or even from California if it looks like a one-off product. I have bought stuff from Europe and have had no problems, however.
 
truthatallcost said:
You're wrong.

eBay admitted that they banned the whistleblower. EBay lied and said it was a case of mistaken identity.

"When a consumer watchdog organization alerted eBay that it had found hundreds of counterfeits on the site, eBay blocked the whistleblower's accounts and removed its comments warning people about fake products.

It did this instead of removing the fake products and blocking the sellers of them.

The company, The Counterfeit Report, had just completed a 9-month investigation into counterfeit products being sold on eBay, publisher Craig Crosby, told Business Insider. It had discovered 250 of them, verifying that each one was a fake with the manufacturer."
eBay Admits It Banned A Whistleblower - Business Insider
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Anything is possible, and me being wring about this is well within the realm of possibilities.
 
truthatallcost said:
You're wrong.

eBay admitted that they banned the whistleblower. EBay lied and said it was a case of mistaken identity.

"When a consumer watchdog organization alerted eBay that it had found hundreds of counterfeits on the site, eBay blocked the whistleblower's accounts and removed its comments warning people about fake products.

It did this instead of removing the fake products and blocking the sellers of them.

The company, The Counterfeit Report, had just completed a 9-month investigation into counterfeit products being sold on eBay, publisher Craig Crosby, told Business Insider. It had discovered 250 of them, verifying that each one was a fake with the manufacturer."
eBay Admits It Banned A Whistleblower - Business Insider
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Perhaps eBay has a legitimate beef if the "consumer watchdog" engages in (only?) frequent fishing - buying lots of stuff that was intended all along to be returned for a refund just to detect a few fakes. That sort of "consumer watchdog" activity hurts legitimate eBay sellers that are forced to play along with the eBay free refund policy. So long as the "consumer watchdog" agrees to keep all legitimate items ordered, I could see eBay working with them - but if the "consumer watchdog" continues to simply keep up its "shopping to return" activity then it hurts legitimate eBay sellers in the process.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
Perhaps eBay has a legitimate beef if the "consumer watchdog" engages in (only?) frequent fishing - buying lots of stuff that was intended all along to be returned for a refund just to detect a few fakes. That sort of "consumer watchdog" activity hurts legitimate eBay sellers that are forced to play along with the eBay free refund policy. So long as the "consumer watchdog" agrees to keep all legitimate items ordered, I could see eBay working with them - but if the "consumer watchdog" continues to simply keep up its "shopping to return" activity then it hurts legitimate eBay sellers in the process.
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There's no mention of The Counterfeit Report group returning any of the items that they bought for a refund. EBay themselves never mentioned returns, instead saying they banned the Counterfeit Report for leaving negative feedback on the profiles of sellers who they purchased fake goods from. These negative feedback reviews contained warnings about items being sold that were tested and found to contain harmful substances. One example was makeup that was found to contain dangerous chemicals.

I see no wrong doing on the part of The Counterfeit Report, however a brief Google search for eBay + lawsuit yields:

2015- Lawsuit Filed against eBay, PayPal for Infringement and RICO Violations
https://www.lawyersandsettlements.c...w-patent-intellectual-20867.html#.V_hKa_Tn-9s

2014- eBay, LVMH settle lengthy lawsuit over fake goods
https://www.cnet.com/news/ebay-settles-lengthy-lawsuit-with-lvmh-over-counterfeit-goods/

2008-EBay Ordered to Pay $61 Million in Sale of Counterfeit Goods
EBay Ordered to Pay $61 Million in Sale of Counterfeit Goods - NYTimes.com

2010-Lawsuit at Tiffany's as jeweller sues eBay over fake sales
Lawsuit at Tiffany's as jeweller sues eBay over fake sales

2012-eBay Sellers Sued For Using Moshi Trademark On Counterfeit Goods
eBay Sellers Sued For Using Moshi Trademark On Counterfeit Goods ? Los Angeles Intellectual Property Trademark Attorney Blog

I have a hard time believing that eBay doesn't know about counterfeits on their site. Average sellers would be hurt more by eBay allowing counterfeiters to dump cheap, inferior products onto the marketplace than by what the Counterfeit Report did. If you're an average seller who sells real merchandise, you probably will have to lower your prices to keep up with the low cost that counterfeit sellers are able to charge.
 
truthatallcost said:
I think we're so swamped with fake goods at this point, that controlling the flow of counterfeits is impossible at the present time. We'd need the Chinese government to get involved and raid factories that produce fake goods, and that's just not going to happen, the Chinese economy benefits too much from counterfeits for their government to step in.
Click to expand...

Maybe a WTO, NAFTA, TTP etc clause committing the country of origin to prevent counterfeits being produced and exported that made the country of production liable for damages would help.
 
joG said:
Maybe a WTO, NAFTA, TTP etc clause committing the country of origin to prevent counterfeits being produced and exported that made the country of production liable for damages would help.
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I could see Trump supporting that idea. Sounds good to me, but I doubt that our politicians would have the nerve to serve China with a bill.

For now, there's a startup that contracts with companies to demand that eBay remove counterfeit products branded with the companies logo.
This startup is monitoring eBay and Amazon with AI to spot counterfeits | Built In Chicago

This could be very useful in getting eBay to finally behave like a responsible company.
 
truthatallcost said:
I could see Trump supporting that idea. Sounds good to me, but I doubt that our politicians would have the nerve to serve China with a bill.

For now, there's a startup that contracts with companies to demand that eBay remove counterfeit products branded with the companies logo.
This startup is monitoring eBay and Amazon with AI to spot counterfeits | Built In Chicago

This could be very useful in getting eBay to finally behave like a responsible company.
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Private policing seems quite okay to me.
 
truthatallcost said:
The actual number of counterfeit goods sold in a day on eBay must be in the millions. I'd never trust eBay enough to shop there.

Do you care that there's so many counterfeit products on the market? What should be done?

Thoughts?
Comments?

500,000 Counterfeit Products Sold to eBay Consumers (NASDAQ: EBAY) - 24/7 Wall St.
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Everybody that buys on Ebay has a computer and as such can check out whatever they are buying using Google or any other search engine to see if that item is real.

What is the actual complaint here?

If Ebay is notified that an item is counterfeit, they remove it.
 
Beaudreaux said:
I buy and sell on eBay from time to time. All you have to do is research what you're buying. If you're gullible, you'll be taken either on or off line. I've never bought a counterfeit product on eBay, because I don't buy crap that could be counterfeited in the first place. If you're buying a (fill in the blank) for $10.00 that normally costs $150.00, that's called a clue.
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Me either and that is because it is almost impossible to counterfeit a 50 year old auto part that was obviously on a car for that time.

Why would anybody buy a phone or shoes online and pay real money?
 
Beaudreaux said:
I have no idea what the OP story's authors did to get kicked off eBay, but as an eBay seller I have to guarantee my stuff because eBay has a buyer protection service that requires me to repay any money I get if I sell a piece of crap to someone. Here's a link to just part of what they do for buyers: eBay Money Back Guarantee | eBay
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The buyers claim doesn't have to be true either.

If a buyer says an item doesn't fit or it was not the right item, there is nothing a seller can do to argue it did fit or it was the right part.

Ebay will give the money back and if you don't voluntarily give that money back, they give you a black mark against your account.

A few of those black marks and you lose your Ebay account.

Ebay protects buyers like little babies and throws sellers under the bus every day.

I don't see how anybody can get burned buying on Ebay.
 
Mason66 said:
Everybody that buys on Ebay has a computer and as such can check out whatever they are buying using Google or any other search engine to see if that item is real.

What is the actual complaint here?

If Ebay is notified that an item is counterfeit, they remove it.
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There are tons of YouTube videos from people complaining that they bought an item from eBay thinking it was real, received a fake, and now they have to pay for return shipping, which isn't reimbursed by eBay.

I really can't figure out why a seller would side with eBay on this. Are you a seller? You lose when eBay allows counterfeits on their site, unless you decide to join in the counterfeit market and sell fakes.

American Sellers and buyers lose, eBay and China win.
 
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