How to Report Counterfeit Goods

matt-dublin

Hi,

i purchased some goods back in February and have only recently found out they're fake.

The guy i bought them from lives in ireland, I have his paypal details, facebook details, phone numbers, website address and address the site was registered to.

Im going the nicey nicey way about it and just trying to get my money back, if he doesn't go with it id like some ammo in my pocket that i can throw at him

Simple ones come to mind like:

Report him to paypal for selling counterfeit goods
Report his website to his hosting provider (reputable irish company widely used here)
Report him to the revenue (never got a vat receipt, so sure he's not registered)
Report him to the company that manufacturers the good
Report him to customs and the gardai for selling counterfeit goods

My goods only cost the guts of 100 euros but i've noticed on his facebook page that he seems to be selling significant quantities of them at the moment but not sure if i've any recourse.

What sort or penalties would there be for him if i was to do something about it?

RoboRat

Depends if he knows that they are fake and consciously selling them. He may argue the case that he doesn't and he would get a slap on the hand. In regards to what you are saying you will do:

Paypal: I'm not sure if they can or will do anything but you might be able to look for your money back as its not as described.

Website: depends on what their charter is and if he is actually breaking it.

Revenue: Depends if you have the right address, might only be PO box, especially if he is selling dodgey goods. He may even be registered but just didn't provide a receipt (although probably unlikely). One of the better avenues to go down as they will probably take an interest.

Company: Probably a good bet, they would take an active interest this.

Gardai: Very much doubt that they would have the resources to deal with this. I work with a web team and we regularly get stolen cards and the Gardai don't have resources to deal with this which would be a more serious crime.

To be honest, I would exhaust every avenue.

BrianD

Revenue is probably your best option. In addition to the tax issues they also target sellers of counterfeit goods. Seems to be their department.

Reporting them to the brand that they are allegedly copying might produce results. These guys tend to have the money and the motivation to stamp out counterfeiting.

lazygal

I used to work for a company who's products are widely counterfeited. I lost track of the amount of times I reported the sale of counterfeit products on the street, in markets and online (within Ireland on ebay). I reported such cases to the Garda Síochána and Revenue on an almost weekly basis and never heard anything back, apart from one case where a charge of counterfeiting and selling such goods was tacked onto a larger prosecution case. Not saying they do nothing about it, but I wasn't very inspired by my experience of reporting fake goods.

coylemj

From what I can make out, the manufacturers apply pressure on the Gardai and Revenue so every so often there's a big bust down in Dublin Port where they intercept a container full of fake Nike trainers or Louis Vuitton handbags, it's all in the news the next day, then everyone goes back to the day job.

Miaireland

Might be worth contacting the consumer rights agency (Not sure what their correct title is).

foggy_lad

lazygal wrote: »

I used to work for a company who's products are widely counterfeited. I lost track of the amount of times I reported the sale of counterfeit products on the street, in markets and online (within Ireland on ebay). I reported such cases to the Garda Síochána and Revenue on an almost weekly basis and never heard anything back, apart from one case where a charge of counterfeiting and selling such goods was tacked onto a larger prosecution case. Not saying they do nothing about it, but I wasn't very inspired by my experience of reporting fake goods.

Better off reporting the fraud to the Companies themselves?

Great program on tv last night about millions of Stg£ of Nike runners and how the gang were laundering their cash through other businesses and storing the overspill in safe deposit boxes! police seized everything and arrested at least 4 of them, showed the face on the leader when he was told they were seizing more than £400,000 found in the safe deposit6 centre:D:D He was anything but happy, you could say his whole world and plans to "get back in business" were destroyed.

lazygal

foggy_lad wrote: »

Better off reporting the fraud to the Companies themselves?

Great program on tv last night about millions of Stg£ of Nike runners and how the gang were laundering their cash through other businesses and storing the overspill in safe deposit boxes! police seized everything and arrested at least 4 of them, showed the face on the leader when he was told they were seizing more than £400,000 found in the safe deposit6 centre:D:D He was anything but happy, you could say his whole world and plans to "get back in business" were destroyed.

My company had a specific anti counterfeiting unit (high end luxury products were what we sold) and I reported all cases to them and the Garda, then the company would follow up. However, they were pretty unimpressed with the response from the Garda compared to other police forces.

Sam Mac

The Gardai couldn't give two sh1ts.

coylemj

Sam Mac wrote: »

The Gardai couldn't give two sh1ts.

Can see why, most luxury goods have massive profit margins and the people who own the companies and their spoilt brats usually manage to spend their money in a very visible and vulgar fashion so there's very little sympathy for them when someone else takes a slice of the action.

The only justifiable reason for chasing up the counterfeiters is because they usually graduate to importing drugs and guns.

Del2005

coylemj wrote: »

The only justifiable reason for chasing up the counterfeiters is because they usually graduate to importing drugs and guns.

Counterfeiting is a crime of itself. Then there's also the revenue loss and health safety issues from a lack of quality. But sure there OK once they don't bother with drugs.


OP definitely contact the manufacture. While the Gardaí may not care the manufacture will and may apply pressure to the seller. If they verify products as fake you may have more power with Paypal as item isn't as described.

fasttalkerchat

I got screwed over by paypal a while ago.
I bought my sister GHD straightners and after over a year they stopped working. Sent them off to GHD and got a letter back saying they are counterfit. Paypal and ebay did nothing because it was over a year since the sale. They had his bank details but couldn't hand them over unless I took them to court!
I got his phone number and had a few words but he was clearly a pro and wasn't going to be intimidated.

Good luck OP but I don't think you'll see you're money again.

Thoie

matt-dublin wrote: »

Report him to the revenue (never got a vat receipt, so sure he's not registered)

Just an FYI, but:

A trader is generally required to register for VAT for making supplies of goods and/or services, subject to his or her turnover exceeding certain thresholds. The most common are €37,500 for the supply of services, and €75,000 for the supply of goods.

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/vat/registration/index.html

lazygal

coylemj wrote: »

Can see why, most luxury goods have massive profit margins and the people who own the companies and their spoilt brats usually manage to spend their money in a very visible and vulgar fashion so there's very little sympathy for them when someone else takes a slice of the action.

The only justifiable reason for chasing up the counterfeiters is because they usually graduate to importing drugs and guns.

This is blatantly wrong. The profit margin on a lot of luxury goods isn't as high as cheap goods because generally they are handmade within the EU to extremely high specifications. The company I worked for handmade everything, every stitch and fastener was done by hand by master craftsman who had trained for several years to make the goods. Of course every business makes a profit but its not correct to assume ALL high end products have a huge markup. There's extra costs they incur, like patenting new techniques, training staff so they are as knowledgeable as possible about the products, fitting out stores to a high standard, security in terms of transport because the goods are desirable and high value and finally the cost of producing products using the best possible materials. Now I know a lot of people will think "Bull, those expensive handbags/belts/shoes are all made in China in cheap factories' but that is not the case at the high end retail level.
Just because you might not want to buy high end designer goods doesn't mean you can excuse people counterfeiting them. It's a despicable trade that funds enormous levels of terrorist and other criminal activities and costs billions in lost tax revenues.

Jim79

OP, what makes you so sure that they are fake? it took you a long time to work it out.