What Difference Can You Make

It is funny how consistent hard work seems endless until you take a look back. I was talking to a paralegal in one of the companies I monitor for. We were discussing one annoying perpetrator when we started talking about the beginnings of the monitoring program. Counterfeits were everywhere but everyone was using the company’s own pictures so that even we found it hard to distinguish the good, the bad and the ugly. There were days when hundreds of auctions were reported and hundreds more were up before they were pulled. Now we had it down to two or three for each product and the counterfeits were spotted on their first auctions. Others in the industry were asking how come our product wasn’t scalped like theirs were on eBay.
The answer is the same as why crime is high in one area but not another. It was nothing more than boring vigilance. Criminals know which police departments are paying attention for the slightest infractions and which more interested in coffee, doughnuts and women. We had been monitoring daily and thinned the herd with constant hunting. While many unscrupulous sellers had been put out of business, for others we could search their lists of auctions and see they had figured out who didn’t monitor.
Along the way we had spotted everything from counterfeits (which is a multi-billion dollar industry) to items stolen from every step of the supply chain (factory, ship, truck/train, store, website and home). And to think, if it weren’t for us, all of it would go completely unchecked. I was asked recently how much I figured counterfeiting was costing the company. I had to stop and think. From the records we kept, I knew we reported over 3,000 auctions a year. Considering some offered hundreds of units available and were clear counterfeits but many others were simply someone that had bought one and were no longer using it, it is hard to say. Assuming the repetitive sales cut out by the reported auctions, it is likely at least that number of displaced sales were stopped. The company’s units averaged at least $200 each so this would run easily in the range of $600,000 on the low side. Considering the collateral damage of diluted goodwill/value to authorized distributors in our marketing materials and the damaged goodwill of consumers stuck with an inferior quality unit they never understand is not the company’s, this figure is much higher. We won’t even consider the injuries caused by counterfeits you have to be trained to spot they are so close in appearance but not quality. I know because I have identified counterfeits responsible for some pretty nasty injuries.
That is why I marvel at how often I can pick a random product and find rampant infringement for it on eBay. What are these companies thinking? While there is a certain validity to the argument that since eBay is causing this, then eBay should stop it, there is equal validity to the reality that eBay is not going to be made to stop it on their own. eBay makes a valid point that although many things are obviously suspicious, they cannot possibly know every detail of every product of every manufacturer in the world. eBay does make efforts to filter auctions that offer “replica” items and other indicators. But when a seller uses the maker’s pictures and claims to be selling authentic, eBay can’t just pull the item because of a low price. Sometimes certain distributors put items on clearance at blow out prices. The other side to this coin is that once upon a time, flea markets were filled with these counterfeits. A company wanting to monitor would have to physically send people to these flea markets to walk the aisles. Now eBay is the place that has sucked all of the air out of the room. No flea market can match the volume an eBay seller can move. Now the end of the chain can be spotted from a desk. An experienced paralegal with a good outside counsel can identify and bust up rings with effective efficiency even though it must be constant. In the old days, it would take an army to hit all of the flea markets with enough presence to make a difference.
eBay, to be sure, has its own interests which ARE NOT yours. eBay can, however, be made useful and effective. There are programs to handle these situations but they all require the manufacturer to take the initiative. Since many of the violations have damages, a good legal team can almost pay for itself just in settlements and judgments, not to mention the damage you prevent by taking action. I have said it before, that while some wagon makers griped about the automobile and went out of business, others adjusted to the new reality and are in business to this day. The world is changing and you make the decisions for your business today.