Trade Agreement Violation ?

[firstauthentics]

What is the name of your state? NV

I am an ebay seller of clothing and sunglasses.
I buy my products from a reputable vendor and I have no doubts about the authenticty of the goods. I posted one paritcular brand of clothing on ebay last week. That manufacturer VeRO's me citing "counterfiet" items. There is no way they could know whether my goods are real or fake as I had not sold any at that time. They could not have "test purchased" this item to see for themsleves. I wrote them back saying they are authentic and I can prove it by sending them my invoices. They replied by saying essentially "Dont bother - we will not let you sell fake goods".

I contacted the VP of Sales of the company who instantly recognized my vendor's name. Bottom line is that the manufacturer does not want their items on ebay for any reason. They have a contract with my vendor stating that the vendor would not sell to any ebay sellers. I do not have any contract or agreement with the manufacturer. My vendor knows that i sell only on ebay.

The question is: How does the manufacturer's trade agreement with my vendor affect me? If I paid and have authentic goods such as in this case, do I have any legal rights to do whatever I want with these goods? Or has "First Sale" not taken place yet thereby allowing the manufacturer to have control over my goods in my warehouse? Their legal dept is saying that because trade agreement has been violated, I have no legal rights to sell them and have threatened to not only contact ebay about it but contact other brands that I sell to make them contact my vendor and cause trouble for me.

 

[firstauthentics]

A copy of one of their emails

Here is a copy of one of their mails to me AFTER I sent them copies of my invoices (they know the name of my vendor - so they know my goods are authentic):

Let me reiterate...We will take down your listing via the VeRO program for the same reason " Violation of a trade agreement" We will then sue both you and the vendor that is giving you the products for violating a trade agreement. Hopefully your account will be suspended this time and you can spend 40- 50K fighting about it with attorneys. Is this something your
interested in?

Not kidding, your account will be suspended and you will need to pay a counsel a lot of money to get you back up on eBay.

We will also email Hudson and Taverniti and expose both you and your vendor, then on to TRBJ and the jobber they sell to and so on.

Choice is yours. Either way, if they are still up by the time I make it to work tomorrow we will VeRO your account.

Sounds rather threatening, doesn't it?

 

[FlyingRon]

[

Sounds rather threatening, doesn't it?

Why do you think the answer over here is any different than what we've been telling you on the Ebay forums. Yes, they are abusing ebay's VERO program. You want to sue 'em? Tabberone has lots of info on her site, but you knew that.

You know the answer. No contract between other parties has any bearing on you. The first sale doctrine says once objects are sold to the public, there's no rights to prohibit further resale.

 

[firstauthentics]

First of all, what is it to you if I post the same question at 2 different sites for varying opinions? Dont answer my questions if you have nothing valuable to say.

Tabberone's situations do not apply to me. I have spoken with her. She does not buy her products from a vendor who have any kind of "Trade Agreement" with the manufacturer. My situation is different in that I have a middle party involved. If the contarct with the middleman is such that they are NOT allowed to sell to ebay sellers, then does that mean first sale has NOT been made yet? That is my question.

And if that is not the case, do I have any legal rights to sue the manufacturer for whatever the reason - interfering with my business, etc etc...?

 

[FlyingRon]

First of all, what is it to you if I post the same question at 2 different sites for varying opinions? Dont answer my questions if you have nothing valuable to say.

Note the title of this forum? You get what you pay for and you don't get to choose who answers and how.

Tabberone's situations do not apply to me. I have spoken with her. She does not buy her products from a vendor who have any kind of "Trade Agreement" with the manufacturer.

No agreement between other parties has any bearing on you. Tabber does have information you need to press that.

My situation is different in that I have a middle party involved. If the contarct with the middleman is such that they are NOT allowed to sell to ebay sellers, then does that mean first sale has NOT been made yet? That is my question.

And the answer is as I have stated. Contracts on sales restriction have no bearing on you.
The first sale is when the item was sold to you. Unless you had a contract from the person from whom you bought it not to sell on ebay, you are welcome to do so.

And if that is not the case, do I have any legal rights to sue the manufacturer for whatever the reason - interfering with my business, etc etc...?

Yes, and the type of action you take is exactly what tabber does in the 20 or so times she has brought such a suit.