The Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) Programme lets intellectual property rights owners request the removal of listings on eBay that offer items or contain materials that infringe on their rights. This programme serves several purposes:

• Helps protect eBay buyers from purchasing counterfeit, illegal, or otherwise unauthorised items

• Helps protect intellectual property rights on the eBay site

• Enables eBay to benefit from the legal protections provided by the Copyright Act (Cap 63) and similar laws in other countries

Intellectual property rights owners can request that we remove listings that they claim, under penalty of perjury, offer an item or contain material that infringes on their intellectual property rights. These rights can include trademark, copyright and other legal rights. Intellectual property infringements include counterfeit items, use of copyrighted text or images, inappropriate comparisons to a trademarked brand, offers of warranty that have not been authorised by the rights owner, and more. In Singapore, a copyright owner will need to give eBay a notice in the prescribed form.

Although eBay is committed to enabling commerce among users, we are committed to doing so within the limits of the law. eBay cannot verify that sellers have the legal right to sell the millions of items they post on eBay each day. Likewise, eBay cannot be an expert in the intellectual property rights of our many VeRO members. At times, the nature of the claimed infringement is not immediately obvious, and requires the trained eye of the rights owner to discover.

Because eBay wants to protect intellectual property rights and comply with the law, eBay removes listings when a Verified Rights Owner claims that there has been a violation. In order to comply with the law and to ensure the good faith actions of rights owners and sellers, eBay requires that Notices of Claimed Infringement filed by rights owners be submitted under penalty of perjury. If a seller’s item is reported, the seller will receive an email explaining why the listing was removed.

Unfortunately, eBay cannot require rights owners to provide the exact reason for the listing removal. However, eBay does require that they provide you with an email address to contact them directly. The rights owner's email address is included in the email eBay sends, notifying the seller about the listing removal. If a seller is unable to resolve the situation with the rights owner directly, contact us

Sellers should keep in mind that listings can be removed for several reasons, including easily remedied matters like the use of an unauthorised photograph, item description, or warranty. Find out more by reading the Guidelines for Legally Compliant Listings and the Frequently Asked Questions.