@between_the_7ines wrote:
Hi Community Team,
Apologies for the length of the post.
In the last two to three weeks I have had 43 items (all football shirts) removed by eBay, with ‘AI automated detection’ identifying these as ‘counterfeit’ being cited as the reason in communications from eBay. More listings are being removed every day. I have previously had items removed on the basis of ‘VERO’, but this is not what is being cited in these recent examples.
I am an experienced seller, with excellent feedback, and no cases raised against me by buyers (for anything, let alone counterfeit items). Nevertheless, I recognise that eBay has a legal obligation to take steps to identify and prevent the sale of counterfeit goods, and so needs to make determinations on a listing by listing basis. However, I am confident in my cases, and likely in the cases of fellow sellers I have engaged with on this matter, that the AI is flawed, leading to a very large number of false positives. I believe this because:
-In all of my listings I provide clear photos of product details, care labels, and internal and external tags.
-Where manufacturers have a product authentication process - usually product codes, QR codes and holograms these have been checked by me as being correct, and included as both a photograph and detailed in the product title and/or description.
-The listings which have been removed (so far), vary in terms of condition (new with tags/used), age (some vintage as far back as from 1980, some current season), time of site (some have been live for months, others a few days), manufacturer, team/club.
-Following discussion with a CS Agent, I tested relisting some shirts with different Title, Description and Photos in event something specific in any of these criteria was triggering the AI -this has had no effect.
-Several other experienced and trusted sellers (both private and business accounts) have had the same experience.
While I am confident that each of the listings are for genuine shirts, I accept that it’s possible I could make mistakes in some instances. However, the range, variety and volume of shirts being removed (across the different users’ accounts that I know of) does not make this likely.
Based upon the above, I can’t see any logic to how the AI is determining these as being counterfeit and I have concluded that any shirt I list will inevitably be identified as ‘counterfeit’ and taken down sooner or later.
I have attempted to appeal a number of the cases, but this seems to be a somewhat flawed process whereby you cannot amend the listing in question, and the same AI is reviewing the exact same listing based upon the same criteria. This is a closed feedback loop, whereby there is no opportunity for a false positive to be flagged, and the AI model to ‘learn’.
I would be really grateful if this could be looked at by eBay (I am extremely confident that anyone with knowledge of authenticating football shirts would look at my listings and come to a different conclusion to the AI). The effect this is having is that it has made selling football shirts on the platform non-viable for legitimate and trusted sellers, which I am sure would not be eBay’s intention - ? As I have said, this isn’t just affecting me, and seems to point to a wider issue.
I have already received a three-day restriction on my account. I have stopped making any new listings, and have so far de-listed c.150 shirts (all of which I am confident are genuine). As it stands, unless I de-list every single shirt, it feels inevitable that more will be flagged by the AI and ultimately my account will be entirely blocked.
An effective AI that removes actual counterfeit shirts and improves trust in the platform would be entirely welcomed, but this is not what is happening currently. Hopefully this can be looked into.
Thanks.
Hi , thanks for your question.
Unfortunately, we are unable to action these kind of cases over this channel. If you believe your item removals and restrictions are wrong, you need to continue contacting our customer service team to appeal these decisions, so it can be looked into.
Thank you,
Marco
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