EBay Policy Violation: counterfeit item policy

[johnbeachill]

I get so frustrated with eBay these days as there is nobody to talk to on the phone, although, from past experience, customer service is not much use anyway.

I have had a listing suspended due to an apparent policy violation of the counterfeit items policy. Thing is I know that eBay have got it wrong as the listing is for software that I wrote, the copyright is mine and it is produced by my little company on a professionally printed CD in a case with proper printed inlay and so on.

Thing is, why do they think this is a counterfeit item and how do I tell them it's not?

[therenewalworkshopltd]

It's more than likely something to do with what you have actually put in the listing itself.
It would be helpful if you posted at least the title and the description.
Have you checked as to exactly what you have put in the specifications etc?  Anything that would make it look like something else?

As to how to appeal it, you will have been told how to do this in the notification that you have received.

[style_wise]

Since you are the rights owner, it may be worth appealing VeRO's decision here through their internal appeals process.

Following on from the reply above, to help pin down exactly what is tripping the VeRO system, Help Pages say the email they sent you when they took your listing down includes the email address of the rights owner who they believe you are infringing upon.

[johnbeachill]

There is no email address of the rights owner in the email that eBay sent me. I have appealed the decision, about a week ago, but have had no response, not even an acknowledgement of my appeal. The only thing that happened is, when I click the link in my listing to "resolve policy violation", the two buttons in the screen that appears, labelled "Start appeal" and "End listing" are both ghosted out.

[johnbeachill]

The listing has been there for many months, and I have had sales from it, the most recent being on 24/07/2025 prior to it being taken down on 31/07/2025.

The listing was posted in 

• "Electronics > Computers/Tablets & Networking > Software > Personal Finance, Tax & Legal"

The listing was titled "HOME ACCOUNTS 4, PERSONAL ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE, EZPZ SOFTWARE"

The description was as follows:

Home accounting software for the PC

• Keep track of unlimited bank accounts, credit cards, savings and investments
• Set up automated standing orders and direct debits and pending bills
• With bank reconciliation, muliple currency support, budgets for income and expenditure
• Create projects and link to transactions
• Visit our website to download a 30-day free trial

Home Accounts helps you manage your personal finances by keeping track of your bank accounts and identifying what you spend your money on.

Home Accounts uses a simple form of double-entry bookkeeping that lets you record any payment or receipt against any income, expenditure, asset or liability account. An analysis of your transactions then shows you at a glance exactly what you spent your money on.

Bank Accounts
Create unlimited bank accounts for your cheque, savings and credit card accounts. See at a glance what your bank account balances are and what standing orders and direct debits you have due for posting. Use the account reconciliation screen to check what you've entered in the software agrees with your paper bank statement. Import transactions from file using OFX, QIF and CSV file formats exported from your on-line banking site.

Categories
Create unlimited income and expense categories and sub-categories to analyse where your money comes from and where it goes to! Create unlimited accounts for your assets, liabilities and investments and see at any time what your net worth is. 

Automated Entries
Set up automated entries for your standing orders and direct debits. Automated entries can be for any frequency and can be for a fixed number of postings or can be set to run until further notice. 

Budget for future spending
Set yourself a budget for any or all of your categories. Budgets are used to predict future spending and to compare actual spending against. See how your spending is doing against your budget in the "Spending Tracker". 

Home Accounts is produced in the UK.

[roger_roger_over_and_nowt]

Bots may have picked up on :- "Visit our website to download a 30-day free trial"

Might be construed as trying to sell outside of Ebay.

[johnbeachill]

That does make some sense. Now if eBay responds to my appeal I may be able to move forwards.

[moldosgifts]

This doesn't sound like a vero it's reads more like a policy violation so most likely the website.

Ebay don't like you sending customers offsite.

Although there is no actual web address a basic google search will find you.

[johnbeachill]

I have just checked and eBay have now rejected my appeal, so I guess that's it, eBay unwilling to listen yet again!

[xyz307xyz]

Ask customer services for the specific issue?

There is a brand or product line called EZPZ for example.

[johnbeachill]

Just got off the phone with "customer services" only to be told the can't/won't divulge the specific reason that my software was removed under their counterfeit item policy. My appeal was rejected and didn't state the reason in the email just said that I must not relist the item.

I have been a seller with eBay for 19 years and I continue to be annoyed with the lack of actual seller support that they provide!

[xyz307xyz]

I would create a brand new item and copy a minimum amount of info from the original - leaving out EZPZ, QIF, "Spending Tracker" and certainly the web site trial, .

Clearly we can't see what pictures you had - is it possible that there was anything there showing or looking like another product? even Windows?

If that lasts a couple of weeks, add a bit more info to it, and again a couple of weeks later.

As I've said there are other EZPZ products. QIF, from what I can see in 30 seconds looks to be "open" but maybe I---- don't like people talking about it, or maybe it's on some ebay list of things to flag. Again in 30 seconds, there are apps called "Spending Tracker" although clearly that is a fairly common term.

You could create the listing on a new account, to protect your existing one.

Or perhaps you could ask someone to hopefully look at it (afterwards) on the Wednesday call.