ebay return, buyer says its counterfeit

soolin

k3lvc wrote: »

So who applies the pressure to Ebay not to sell Fitbits ?

The parent company of Fitbit.

As per my post earlier in the thread this is not uncommon, many companies (there is a huge list) enforce a no sale rule with ebay, some have made headline news like Tiffany and Microsoft, but many others are not apparent until a seller gets a warning on their account.

EDIT. Check the Ebay VERO programme

http://ocsnext.ebay.co.uk/ocs/sr?query=1337

Here's what we found for "Listing removed because of a rights infringement "
Listings may be removed if they offer an item or contain material that infringes on the!intellectual property rights!of others.

Examples include:
Items that bear the rights owner's trademark (such as a logo on a designer handbag), but may not be authentic products
Unauthorised recordings or copies of audio, video, or other media
Items that infringe on the intellectual property rights of others are usually reported by the rights owner. To contact the rights owner, use the email address that was included in the message we sent you.

soolin

Also here:

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/intellectual-property-ov.html

eBay VeRO Programme: Reporting listing violations
We created the Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) Programme so intellectual property owners could report listings that infringe their intellectual property rights. It is in eBay’s interest to ensure that infringing items are removed from the site, as they erode the trust of our buyers and good sellers.

http://vero.ebay.com/

VeRO Participant Profiles
To help you safely sell branded products on eBay, we offer the following pages written by intellectual property rights owners and similar organizations that work with eBay.! These pages give information about the brands’ products and legal positions. The rights owners are solely responsible for the content.! Please contact the rights owners directly if you have questions.! Some rights owners who work with eBay did not to contribute a page, so the list of brands is not comprehensive.!
If you represent a rights owner with a page below and have concerns about it, please contact us at!vero@ebay.com.

Lots and lots of people, including me about 5 years ago get caught out by this one : Lipsy Ltd

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

soolin wrote: »

The parent company of Fitbit.

As per my post earlier in the thread this is not uncommon, many companies (there is a huge list) enforce a no sale rule with ebay, some have made headline news like Tiffany and Microsoft, but many others are not apparent until a seller gets a warning on their account.

EDIT. Check the Ebay VERO programme

http://ocsnext.ebay.co.uk/ocs/sr?query=1337

Here's what we found for "Listing removed because of a rights infringement "
Listings may be removed if they offer an item or contain material that infringes on the!intellectual property rights!of others.

Examples include:
Items that bear the rights owner's trademark (such as a logo on a designer handbag), but may not be authentic products
Unauthorised recordings or copies of audio, video, or other media
Items that infringe on the intellectual property rights of others are usually reported by the rights owner. To contact the rights owner, use the email address that was included in the message we sent you.

They may try but have no right to, VeRO does not aply as the trademark is exhausted at the point of sale within the EU.

OP the buyer is not at fault here so you need to accept the return.

Personally I would send the item back to Fitbit and then issue them with a notice before action for your losses and take them to small claims if they do not pay.

They will likely know their actions are in violation of the various EU Directives covering such activity and pay up when they recieve court papers.

soolin

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head wrote: »

They may try but have no right to, VeRO does not aply as the trademark is exhausted at the point of sale within the EU.

OP the buyer is not at fault here so you need to accept the return.

Personally I would send the item back to Fitbit and then issue them with a notice before action for your losses and take them to small claims if they do not pay.

They will likely know their actions are in violation of the various EU Directives covering such activity and pay up when they recieve court papers.

I was answering from an ebay perspective, they have the right to refuse to allow the sale of anything that a big company decides to get difficult on. Legally in the UK for instance I could if I wished (and personally I don't touch it ) sell pre 1947 ivory- but ebay enforce a strict ivory ban.

However, as you point out if one leaves the ebay issue aside then people still have all the usual legal rights, but would need in that instance to chase a third party, not ebay.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

These restrictions on cetain items are a dangerous path but ivory is a bit different as not being allowed on eBay doesn`t really create a barrier to trade but I can`t see where eBay says you can`t sell a Fitbit.

VeRO is eBays get out clause for being held liable for the activity on it`s site, unfortunately the abuse of the program is down to people like the OP and the rights owner to argue over.

Just with Amazon`s price parity policy hopefully someone will cotton on to this practice and rights owners will have to send their time and money working out what really violates their rights rather than abusing genuine consumers with a lazy blanket policy.

GabbaGabbaHey

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head wrote: »

They may try but have no right to, VeRO does not aply as the trademark is exhausted at the point of sale within the EU.

They have every (commercial) right to.

Fitbit have agreed with eBay that eBay will not allow any items with the Fitbit name/logo on it - they may even have paid eBay to do this. eBay then says in its Ts&Cs that such items may not be sold on eBay. That's how business works. End of.

I can quite legally sell you a knife (depending on its specification) or early ivory or whatever. eBay have made a commercial decision that they don't want to deal with the various legal issues related to these items, so they put a blanket ban on selling such items.

Don't like it? Then close your eBay account and sell somewhere else.

Rosemary7391

I don't think ebay has anything to do with it - the item got sold without problem. It's just that it's being returned because apparently fitbit have killed that device. How did you come by it OP?

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

GabbaGabbaHey wrote: »

They have every (commercial) right to.

Fitbit have agreed with eBay that eBay will not allow any items with the Fitbit name/logo on it - they may even have paid eBay to do this. eBay then says in its Ts&Cs that such items may not be sold on eBay. That's how business works. End of.

I can quite legally sell you a knife (depending on its specification) or early ivory or whatever. eBay have made a commercial decision that they don't want to deal with the various legal issues related to these items, so they put a blanket ban on selling such items.

Don't like it? Then close your eBay account and sell somewhere else.

It's a very grey area, there are threads on the Amazon forums regarding certain Microsoft games being blocked to new listings.

Today you can't sell your Fitbit or XBOX game, tomorrow your iphone, Sony TV or Tesco tin of beans?

If eBay wish to avoid such issues they should take the expense of verifying their sellers, which would help to a huge extent.

For brands, if they wish to prevent their brand bring devalued their intentions appear to be anti-competitive, if it is counterfeits that is their concern then maybe they could fund the cost of checking what comes into to this country from China, rather than the taxpayer.

Ultimately your earlier statement that these companies can do as they wish is incorrect. If challenged as anti-competitive or unfair they may find themselves forced to change their policies, exactly as Amazon decided to do rather than face the music.

For the OP there should not be any reason they can not resell their property that was purchased from an authorised source within the EU.

ess0two

ess0two wrote: »

Did the listing show the serial number??Can't understand how fitbit would know it was bought from ebay??

Anyone???? how would fitbit realise it was sold 'new un-opened' thru ebay,i'm assuming all registering would be done online.

GabbaGabbaHey

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head wrote: »

For the OP there should not be any reason they can not resell their property that was purchased from an authorised source within the EU.

Of course there is absolutely no reason why they can't resell it. They just can't do so on eBay.

Which is a perfectly sensible and legitimate commercial decision by eBay.