Post
by MKTheVintageBloke » July 26th 2017, 7:47pm
I'm afraid it's something of an illusion, that the eBay staff can fully control every single thing sold through such a behemoth (in terms of the amount of items listed) of a site, and that through making the regulations more stringent, it all will out of a sudden be perfect for everyone. While the companies certainly have the right to protect their trademarks, I'm afraid that suing eBay might in the end turn out to be a wee bit like the story of Xerxes, the king of Persia, whipping the waters of Hellespont.
I would be surprised, if eBay didn't have a proper set of regulations concerning the procedure of removing a fake item after it's reported as such. For one, the number of reports on an item being a fake. I don't know how many times does an item have to be reported in order for eBay to remove it, however many times have I seen listings for fake watches being removed after being reported by WUS (and, likely, of a number of other forums as well) members. Did I see eBay fail to remove such an item? Yes. Quite a few times. Shit being relisted over and over, despite being reported? Seen that as well.
They don't have experts on every single thing in every single category of items sold through their site, as that's impossible to do on such a scale. Not even Chrono24, a far smaller site, can prevent every single sale of a fake or franken, and I've seen some seriously nasty shit sold there. And if one or two reports only could cut it, and have the listing and the seller removed, then every single seller could use that to get rid of his competitor(s).
I've also seen situations, where eBay didn't really show a lot of common sense (they did show a fair bit of zeal instead), and bowed to even the most nonsensical complaints regarding trademark infringement. An example of that is the infamous case of NATO straps (as much as with all the anti-NATO-strap sentiments here some might not like the example, it doesn't detract from its validity) , where some utter wanker of a strap seller in the US has registered "NATO" as his trademark (I don't know who in the authorities has allowed him to do that, but it must have been some countryside product of incest going on for a few generations), and had eBay remove hundreds of listings by dozens of sellers, in his pursuit of a monopoly for NATO straps.
I'm not saying that eBay is all good here, but the possible implications of potential changes need to be assessed. It's easy to say that they're not doing enough, and it's equally easy to fuck up the situation all the same with a change in eBay procedures. While a change in regulations might help the manufacturers, it can easily expose a lot of the sellers to an entire legion of motherfucking crooks like that NATO strap swindler. When it comes to regulations, deficit and excess are both easy to exploit, and that said, I just wonder if when the companies get what they want, it won't be out of the frying pan, and into the fire for many others.
I always hope for the best. Experience, unfortunately, has taught me to expect the worst.
Elim Garak, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
No good deed ever goes unpunished.
Rule of Acquisition no.285
2025 3flushes Media.^^^
