Warning and Advice please-solicitor-e-bay

[remus]

My daughter has received a letter from a solicitor stating that she has sold counterfeit products on e-bay.

To go forward they want the name of the supplier and costs within 7 days.

 

Now it gets messy, my daughter has stupidly allowed someone to use an account in her name. I am furious, but realise that is not helping the situation. Aiding and abetting comes to mind.

 

She has been told they are not counterfeit, and they have no problem with suppling the information they want.

 

I am more concerned with the fact my daughter is the named person, and how she should respond to the solicitor.

 

Any advice of how we should procede would be appreciated.

[gyzmo]

Firstly, can you say that these products have actually been sold? And are they counterfeit? I would expect such a complaint like that to come from Trading Standards, FACT, IPO or other such organisations relating to intellectual property, especially when they are asking for the supplier details (as this indicates to me some kind of enforcement action being taken). Given that a criminal offence seems to be involved, I would seek professional legal advice.

[PriorityOne]

As the person has also said that they have no problem supplying the information re. these products, I would suggest that your daughter gets hold of it pronto.... and then takes the whole lot down to her local police station, where her visit should be recorded on their files.

 

If they feel that a crime has been committed... they should then pick it up themselves and you can then refer the solicitor to them.

[remus]

The solicitor is working on behalf of the company who produce the item (alarm bells are starting to ring) they are asking for compensation to stop any further action and costs.

Thanks gyzmo, I will have to have a proper look at the letter. The goods have been sold, and she is being told they were not counterfeit.

[remus]

Thanks priortyone, good advice. Kids who'd have em:rolleyes:

[PriorityOne]

Thanks priortyone, good advice. Kids who'd have em:rolleyes:

 

Yep... I know the feeling !

[gyzmo]

Can you say which solicitors they are or the name of the product being sold?

[remus]

gyzmo, I haven't got the letter, but Walkers is the name of the solicitors, I will try and get the address, and its gdh, hair irons etc.

You mentioning who you would expect to get notice from, has got me wondering if it is a proper firm.

There was photocopies of the gdh advertising, and copy right was mentioned.

[gyzmo]

There are a couple of legitimate solicitors using that name, so it could be genuine.

 

You say your daughter was told that these items were legit. Can you (or your daughter) be sure of that? You can get anything counterfeited now (I kid you not, but even counterfeit greetings cards are being found now. If they can make money from it, they'll flog it). I know of an operation where cheap electrical products were bought, stripped of labels and packaging and replaced with branded stuff. Looking at them, you couldn't tell the difference.

 

Where did they come from? Are there receipts? Can the supplier be trusted?

 

If this is a genuine claim, then I would suggest you get proper legal advice. And there are a couple of courses of action I would recommend. If this has been done innocently, then I would suggest contacting Trading Standards in the first instance and tell them everything - where they came from etc. They will be more interested in getting to the source than they will in going for the little fish, as it were. Co-operating may also assist your daughter. Or you can go on the defence which will require legal assistance anyway.

 

If this is some kind of [problem], then Trading Standards will want to know about this as well. Again, they may be interested in your daughter and the allegation.

 

Either way, you really do need to get some clarification without putting your daughter at risk of action - legal or otherwise.

[PriorityOne]

GHD are very particular about their suppliers though.... so this does need looking into if she was making bulk sales.... If it was just a one-off used item, then there wouldn't have been a problem.

[gyzmo]

Also, this link here is to a forum with people who look like tey are in the same boat. That may be worth a look at (Interlectual Property Rights) Solicitors Letter - Trademark - Ebay - TheLaw.com - Free legal advice from lawyers since 1995

 

Looks like people have been buying goods wholesale and flogging them on ebay fo a small profit. Unware, however, that they have been buying dodgy gear.

[buzby]

The eBay action will be under the VERO program, which supplies details of members to those legitimately pursuing trademark and other disputes. I would think letting anyone have third-party access to an eBay account is careless in the extreme, and if she hasn't already done so, change the password ot get eBay to close it off quickly.

[remus]

Gyzmo, it is the same letter, thank you for finding the link.

 

My daughter has had no involvement with this and has no information to pass over, I am thinking her best recourse would be to return the letter to the solicitors stating such.

 

Buzby, will be closing the account:mad:

 

Please let this be a warning to others!

[PriorityOne]

She really needs to get hold of the information from this other person before doing anything....

[remus]

Hi priortyOne, she has made contact with them, and as gyzmo has said

 

"Looks like people have been buying goods wholesale and flogging them on ebay fo a small profit. Unware, however, that they have been buying dodgy gear."

 

:o

[PriorityOne]

Well, they must have known the goods were dodgy... otherwise they would have set up their own Ebay account, so if this person can supply the info. to confirm the products were geniune (as you said earlier), then your daughter needs to have it.

 

If not, then she should shop them to the police in order to protect her own interests.

[NitrousOxide]

Sorry to dig this thread up a bit.

This has just happened to my brother after putting up 1 used pair on ebay and they are legit.

The scary thing is how easily ebay have handed over his name and address. Surely there is a DPA breach there.

I can scan all the letters up for everyone to read if it helps as this appears not to be an isolated incident looking about on the net.

And yes, they really do demand £350 and ask you to surrender to them what you already have.

All this for secondhand irons on ebay:mad:

[PriorityOne]

GHD have a bit of a "precious" attitude when it comes to their irons... pity they don't build them to last, then it might be justified.

[kangaroozoo]

Ebay is nothing short of a waste of time. I'd say I find it amazing how they let people openly sell counterfeit razors and batteries but when you've got 100,000 feedback and are providing them a nice steady income, I'm not really that surprised they allow it.

 

They're slowly driving people away. It won't be long until there is another decent auction site available and the buyers and sellers will be leaving in droves.

 

Their insistance that we all use paypal put me off - especially considering Paypal is owned by Ebay.

[sillygirl1]

I was offered a pair today but refused, I bought another brand earlier this year from a reputable high street retailer and they are much better - had one tong attachment missing but it was one I didn't use anyway (for curly hair and my hair is curly anyway.....)

 

I suspect that the hairdressers who sell them are under 'contract' to sell at a high price and report the names of the sellers to the company as a 'precaution'. Not a practice I particulaly favour.

[NitrousOxide]

I will scan the letters anyway for everyone to see.

It's the audacity of accusing someone of counterfeit goods, making them return them and compensate. Yet they are genuine albeit secondhand.

There is no law in selling seconhand goods.

[gyzmo]

There is no law in selling seconhand goods.

 

Well there are a few - description, right to title for just a couple. Just not something everyone is aware of

[JonCris]

The reason ebay are so quick to cooperate with manufactures is because they have recently been warned that they will be sued if they continue to allow counterfeit goods to be sold on ebay

 

Am I correct in thinking the 'buyer' of this item was in fact an agent provocateur & not a genuine buyer. They are known to trawl ebay & other sites on behalf of their clients in the hope of finding counterfeit goods

[patdavies]

I may be missing the point here, but by what right can a solicitor 'demand' information?

 

If they wished to pursue via a civil route, then not replying will avoid inadvertently supplying ammunition and remember that they are required to prove their case; it is not enough for them to make an assertion and require you to disprove it.

 

If they are intending to take a criminal route, I would wait until the police are involved and onl answer questions under caution and with my own (or duty) solicitor present.

[vic1]

Hi

The same has happened to me! I have received a letter from JMW solicitors re me listing a pair of GHDs on ebay. The content of the letter seems pretty much the same bar 1 paragraph:

 

'.....lack of knowledge provides no defence to an action for either trade mark infringement or passing off. In any event, we note that our client has previously removed an ebay listing of counterfeit irons that was placed by you. Despite this removal, and you subsequently receiving an automated email from eBay explaining why the irons were removed, you chose to re-list the irons on at least one occasion.

 

We would strongly advise you seek independent legal advice as to the contents of this letter'.

 

My scenario is this:

 

Around feb of this year my partner spotted a pair of the new pink GHDs on ebid. As my gHDs had broken we decided to purchase the pink ones from ebid - it was the first time either of us had used the site and we set an account up with my details. To be honest I did not know whether they were genuine or not when we purchased them - I am not sure how you can. We paid around £60 for them in the hope all would be ok.

 

They came and looked absolutely genuine - I comared them against my others which were also the new MK4 and the box, CD, booklets etc looked as normal. They also worked just like my others but then suddenly stopped working about 4 months later. I decided to sell them on ebay and stated that they were broken ( I had sold my other broken ones and had no problem). I put on a photo and gave all the relevant details. Then they got removed and I got the automated email from ebay but I decided to re-list them - mainly because as far as I was concerned they were genuine (in hindsight, stupid to relist I know). They had the hologram, serial no. etc which I then stated on the relisting. I sold them for about £30 maybe a bit less - the sale was possibly the day I relisted them. That was it!

 

Now I have the letter. I am worried as they are asking for £200, implying I am trading counterfeit ghds.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions - I am concerned as I sold them and didn't end up giving them away like the other post said.

 

This was a genuine mistake and am hacked of as I have neither the time nor the money to pursue.