“This landmark RICO lawsuit against eBay identifies ongoing practices by the $18 billion e-commerce giant which are aiding a $1.7 trillion global criminal enterprise with the results threatening the health and safety of American consumers and the U.S. economy and damaging manufacturer’s reputations and brands,” said lead attorney R. Rex Parris.“A two-year investigation by The Counterfeit Report®, a consumer anti-counterfeiting advocate, provided investigative detail and insight into eBay’s ecosystem to advertise, list, manipulate, sell, finance, ship and encourage the sale of counterfeit and fake products. Most importantly, eBay’s response to The Counterfeit Report® investigation confirms that eBay is “willfully blind” to the rampant trafficking in counterfeit and fake products on ebay.com,” added Parris.
The detailed 106-page lawsuit asserts that because eBay and PayPal cannot continue to enjoy the enormous profits derived from the proliferation of counterfeit and fake products sold on the eBay website if the intentional infringing sellers are excluded, eBay’s policies and practices are designed to, among other things, (i) promote the unlawful activities of its unauthorized sellers by soliciting eBay buyers to purchase fake products knowingly using listings that infringe on registered trademarks, (ii) conceal and protect the identity of the sellers who are responsible for intentional trademark infringement on the eBay website, and (iii) ignore evidence of the unlawful activities by its unauthorized sellers. According to the Complaint, to avoid liability, eBay’s policies and practices are designed to manufacture the false optic that it does not know or suspect the rampant and on-going advertising on ebay.com of fake products that infringe on the trademarks’ of legitimate rights holders, such as Plaintiff.
“We believe that we have overwhelming evidence demonstrating that eBay has engaged in a sustained pattern of racketeering.” Among the many complaints, the lawsuit alleges eBay developed and maintains a pervasive practice of obstructing and ignoring counterfeit enforcement through sham customer support programs. eBay purports to police such counterfeiting through its policy which states “You can’t list replicas, fakes, counterfeits, or other illegal copies on eBay.” However, test purchases have proven this is simply lip service offered to address a known, extensive and ongoing problem. “Reality is starkly different,” said Parris.
“The lawsuit alleges eBay often took no effective action to block and remove listings and sellers when fake and counterfeit products were actually purchased, confirmed by the manufacturer, and reported to eBay. Incredibly, even products bearing a manufacturer’s trademarked brand that never existed in the manufacturer’s product line continue to be sold on eBay and deceive consumers, despite repeated complaints,” stated Parris
According to the complaint, “Plaintiffs are informed and believe that even more shocking is that consumers actually receive email notifications and eBay webpage from eBay encouraging the purchase of known counterfeit and fake products. When confronted on the counterfeit purchases, eBay directs consumers to mail counterfeits back to the seller as a mandatory condition for a refund. Returned counterfeits are easily recycled, re-listed and re-sold to unsuspecting consumers, and the buyer loses their only evidence of receiving a counterfeit,” said Parris.
“The fundamental goal of the lawsuit is to bring attention and monetary consequence to eBay to divest itself of any interest or activity, direct or indirect in the distribution of counterfeit or potentially counterfeit products,” added Parris.
“RICO involves an intentional and repeated pattern and practice of violating laws in furtherance of a criminal enterprise. Manufacturers injured by RICO activities in business or property by reason of a violation of Section 1962 are entitled to recover threefold the damages sustained and the cost of the suit. A significant number of the eBay consumer community may be entitled to refunds for counterfeit products purchased on eBay.
A copy of the complaint can be downloaded here.
A photo accompanying this release shows confirmed counterfeit Chanel No. 5 EDP, SanDisk 64GB micro SDHC memory card, Lunatik Epik Apple iWatch Case and TakTik Extreme iPhone case, Monster Tron T1 headphones, and a Group-A Autosports lower automobile suspension control arm. The photo can be downloaded here.
About The R. Rex Parris Law Firm
For 30 years, R. Rex Parris has devoted his practice to protecting the rights of injured people and aggrieved employees. Rex and his dedicated team provide thorough, high-quality representation with integrity and compassion. From motor vehicle crashes to class actions and defective products, these lawyers fight aggressively against corporate defense attorneys and insurance companies to ensure their clients get the compensation they deserve. For more information please visit rrexparris.com
READER COMMENTS
Darrell E McDonald
on
133276448026 - 1912-S Lincoln Wheat Penny/Full Band D Mint Mercury Dime Capped Shotgun Roll
133278049421 - 1931-D Lincoln Wheat Penny/1912 Barber Dime Capped Shotgun Roll
133280831795 - BU 1902 Indian Head/Key Date 1908-S Indian Head Capped Shotgun Roll w/Silver! {What policy are they talking about they pulled these listings of mine and suspended me for 3 days and they refuse to tell me why I have 100% feedback but ever time I list a roll of coins they pulled my listings and I get an email from them telling me someone reported my coins as fakes when I call them up they tell me that they know my coins are not fake but they refuse to tell me why they pulled them and for me not to do it again what again? Can someone please tell me why they are pulling my listings!?
Natalie Murray
on
Randy Meier
on
ray
on
Sammy
on
Self Paced
on
Kimberly
on
Lena
on
paul smith
on
Ray
on
Now what is happening, is that people have purchased the counterfeit items and then come to our customer service demanding refunds for badly manufactured items that were not made by us but in fact cheap chinese copies. We are proud that our products are made in the USA. But now these copies are hurting our business with complaints online that are unjustified because we did not make the products they had purchased. It may look identical down to the name / logo, but are pretty much junk inside. So how long do American companies have to deal with losing sales and bad reputations caused by cheap counterfeit items?
Ramone
on
I tried to get to the bottom of it and only got extremely frustrated. Long story short......I was told that back in Oct. 2013, ebay had placed this restriction for some (unknown) reason and notified me of it. During this time period - Sept. 1st 2013 to Oct. 31st 2013, I got 7 or 8 email notifications about an item of mine that wasn't selling after repeated relisting; but not a single email/notification regarding the selling restriction.
When I insisted that this restriction was entirely arbitrary, the "selling limits" specialist kept telling me that ebay had notified me and that he couldn't pull it up because it had been archived (more than 2 yrs. old). He wouldn't also give me the contact info. of his manager for me to resolve the matter. He kept telling me that I should write to Corporate or contact Leadership Dept. (why?) to pursue this further. This episode ended with the specialist cutting me off and putting me on hold.
rick bass
on
colin
on
I've had Ebay account for years and every time I go to list a Brand item,even although I know it's genuine and purchased from Boots.com .They always take down my listings of Branded goods.They same they are fakes and counterfeit,but that is like saying big stores like Boots.com are selling fakes.
I'd love to be able to sue them for millions,as this is what is needed to make them who look at your listing know what is fake and what is not.As they have thousands of fake items on Ebay,but pick on the same people all the time.Even listing a genuine item,surely I can sue them in court over calling just purchased items from big store fakes.If they don't want fakes on their sites,then don't allow any Branded items to be listed whiout proof of purchase from a store etc,that way this will cull all the fakes.Think i'am just being picked on,lol.
Stockgirl12
on
Vincent Dunn
on
John
on
They are well aware that a company in Missouri thats ran by a very well known con man and known publicly as a scam has been selling fraudulent renewable energy junk made in Vietnam but advertised as 100% made in America.
The product is a Micro wind turbine thats claimed to produce over 600% more than is possible in any conditions. Theres You Tube videos all over showing Missouri wind and solar fraud rip offs. And the scam artist is all over you tube with over 40 channels to distort the reports on him and attack the victims he and Ebay worked together to create.
Its a cash cow with a near 400% profit margin. That company is Missouri wind and solar and he has the accounts SkyMax Wind, Mandalay Wind, and Mountain Wind Trading company of which all are ran out of a shack By a slick scam artist called Jeff.
Does Ebay care? NO. Will Ebay Stop it, NO. They make lots of money off the poor customers. And the con man even brags he has paid internal "handlers" that keep his feedback and complaints fixed to attract more victims. Courtesy of Ebay!
If they will do this for a known scam artist, then who else gets help ripping off the public. Lots of them do. Ebay is screwing massive amounts of customers by protecting scams. Its apparently their business plan.
Crabitha
on
Wasn’t eBay ordered by the courts to sell PayPal? Apparently they are still in some way contracted with or own interest in PayPal because they are telling PayPal to withhold payments from sellers for 21 days for all purchases if the seller was unable to fill an order from a buyer. This happens more frequently with eBay’s legitimate sellers; those selling one of a kind items as opposed to those selling cheap knockoffs and poor quality trinkets from China.
eBay encourages sellers to re-list items that didn’t sell at auction the first time around. In fact, they ask sellers to sign up for automatic re-listing of items that don’t sell. Occasionally the seller will sell an item through another venue and it’s no longer available but the item is automatically re-listed on eBay. In that case, the seller refunds the buyer immediately and apologizes for their disappointment, etc. If that happens one time, eBay orders PayPal to withhold all payments to a seller for 21 days. I wonder how much interest PayPal is getting and splitting with eBay with this new policy (instituted last month).
eBay began with small sellers of one of a kind items, like a gigantic garage sale. That was in the 1990s. Fast forward to 2016 and it’s an entirely different business model. In the 2000s, eBay, in an effort to ‘grow’ their business began encouraging sellers to buy cheap junk from China wholesale so they could compete with a bunch of other sellers selling the same cheap junk. As a result, they encouraged a plethora of sellers providing Ali Express (etc) knockoffs who can sell thousands of cheap trinkets to unsuspecting buyers. These sellers, even though their feedback ratings contain many complaints, get to the top of the ebay search engines and they never run out of junk to sell. These are the sellers eBay wants. They don’t run out of items so they don’t get their payments withheld for 21 days. As eBay continues to discourage sellers with one of a kind collectible and antique items, they in turn encourage the people selling counterfeit items from China. Many Americans don’t understand that in China, someone duplicating another’s item (counterfeiting as we see it) is considered a compliment and so their culture encourages counterfeiting.
Can it be really be legal to withhold payments for 21 days from sellers who have sold an item and shipped it to a customer?
Crabitha
on
Brian Hunt
on
Frank
on
Bradley
on
In addition E-P will NOT refund selling fees if a buyer doesn't pay UNLESS you open a case with them to get the fees back. This is an obvious scam to keep the fees by E-P. E-P is unethical and rude over the phone when you finally, after many transfers, get someone who speaks native english. If anyone knows of a class action case or wants to start one against this criminal combine point me to it!
Beth Schoeffler
on
John Ervin
on
I have 4 cases in seller dashboard, 1 was removed but 3 remain. 1 seller was convicted of fraud and was booted from both platforms.. my fault NOT...
In the other case buyer opens up "Not as described case" to get refund on item that did not fit.. FRAUD again...
Fighting this need an attorney.. anyone interested.. ?
Curtis
on
After about a month it failed. After much research I determined it was a counterfeit, poor quality bearing.
This is a critical part, failure could create a major safety issue.
The sellers are probably obtaining them through Alibaba as they are readily available there.
I will no longer use eBay after this.
Mike L
on
B. Blommaert
on
In fact it's literally somewhere in the fine print somewhere on the paypal. I don't recall the exact phrasing but it boils down to "when you use paypal, you'll get scammed. Consider it a business expense and get over it"
If you respond to a false complaint made against you, and you dare to provide 100% proof of shipment, they still rule in favor of the scammer/buyer.
So they can not only steal your money but CHARGE YOU A 16 DOLLAR FINE.
PayPal & Ebay have nice racket going on there. It's literally organised crime. The only difference is they have lawyers instead of Tommy Guns.
Joe
on
Chris
on
We went from turning over just under £800k a year on ebay to closing the ebay side of the company down simply because the amount of fake goods listed on ebay.
When you have customers telling us that we are ripping them off because seller "X" is selling the item at 1/4 of the price we did, it becomes very clear where the sales had gone.
You can't buy the items from the manufacturer at that price, hell, that price was probably a break even cost for the item to be made.
The authorities are quick to jump on the band wagon of chasing people like Kim Dotcom etc but what about Ebay? They must make many more times the profit from trade mark violations that his MegaUpload site (supposedly) ever did.
Cynthia Conkling
on
Michael
on
Ebay has lost it. They buyer always wins means they support fraud, theft, and worse. They took MY software, gave it to buyers, and gave them full refunds. Some said they never got it...but by god they have it listed for sale on their own site now that they have their money back and ebay just tells you...get over it. Its time to bring eBay down to face the Laws of this land rather than assume they can make them up as they go along. And now its being considered for sale to a Chinese group? Ebay China failed. Remember?
Capt. Ahad
on
Vance
on
I was originally told by an eBay representative that the account restrictions could only be reversed if Nautilus, Inc retracted their claim made against me. After calling and talking to another eBay representative, not having any other claims or issues brought forward to eBay about your account COULD lead to some liency. It didn't hurt that Nautilus Inc changed their position from what they originally claimed to eBay in their email response to my inquiry I sent to them about this matter.
Vance
on