Fake Lego Sets

[paul_cros]

Ebay seems to have become rife with fake Lego sets. I would not mind so much if this was clearly displayed, but the sellers use both the LEGO name and set name in the title. Only in the description does it state 'Lego-compatible'.

I raised a complaint about one listing which was clearly misleading and using all the official Lego photos and the Ebay agent said the listing was not in violation of policy. The link they sent to 'Start appeal' did not work either!

Any ideas what to do in this situation would be welcomed.

[tobiasd4]

It is not allowed to refer to a branded item, unless it is the genuine item.

As ebay never see the item, they can't know if real or not.

If you receive a fake item, open ebay case for not as described. 

Also read VeRo at bottom of page.

AI does not help either, often it says no issue.

[tommystrezures]

Lego is part of the eBay vero program, so you could report the item numbers direct to "Lego" if ebay wont do anything.

[john1297576]

Fakes are not allowed, but reporting seems a waste of time as AI seems to make decisions. Appeals even if decision is made by an agent are just as bad.

I recently reported a listing, that was against the rules, but AI said ok. Appealed and even pasted in ebay’s rule saying not allowed, but an Agent who no doubt cannot read still said no rules broken.

[paul_cros]

I went onto the chat and eventually spoke with an actual person! They were helpful but really it seems they are unable to filter out the fake items as they never see the product. Disappointing and I can see why people are switching to other selling sites.

[papso22]

Buyer protection on other sites is nowhere near as good as Ebay's. 

[jckl1957]

You need to use the 'report item' link.

It is on every listing. At the bottom right, there is a question mark inside a faint circle.  Click on that to report an item.

You need to choose:

submit report

IP infringement

counterfeit item

[paul_cros]

Thanks for the replies and advice. Having submitted the appeal, they responded (almost too quickly and unsurprisingly):-

"We reviewed your appeal of a decision we made on one of your content reports, and we didn’t find the content to be in violation of our policy."

Quite unbelievable really.

[tressygirl]

Contact Lego with the details you've found. 

It's up to them then to contact eBay, and Lego is Vero protected,  so eBay will act on a Brand owners requests.

@paul_cros 

[red_magpie]

Any ideas what to do in this situation would be welcomed.

Unfortunately, so-called "AI assistance" doesn't seem to have been trained to read eBay's own policies. So users contacting eBay to report counterfeits keep getting told that listings do not violate eBay's policy. What they should be told is that eBay doesn't accept reports of counterfeits from ordinary users. They need to report their suspicions to the brand owner, not to eBay.

You can read eBay's policy here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/listing-policies/selling-policies/intellectual-property-vero-pr...