Direct answer: Counterfeit reporting on eBay runs through the Verified Rights Owner program, VeRO. Enrolled rights owners submit listings with a signed statement of rights and the specific infringement, and eBay removes reported listings and escalates repeat sellers under its policies. Strong reports identify the trademark or copyright relied on, explain the counterfeit indicators, and group a seller's infringing listings together so enforcement can act at account level.
eBay has run brand protection longer than any other marketplace, and it shows: the VeRO program is formal, documented, and built for rights owners who report accurately and often. Brands that learn its paperwork once gain a removal channel that works at real scale.
The program's formality cuts both ways. Sloppy or overbroad reports stall, and rights owners are expected to know their rights. This playbook covers enrollment, evidence, and the repeat seller problem that decides whether VeRO becomes a system or a chore.
Enrollment starts with proof of rights ownership and a signed agreement, after which the rights owner can submit listings by the program's reporting tools and email channels. Designate who in your organization signs reports, because consistency of reporter identity speeds review and builds the accuracy record eBay tracks.
Prepare your rights library before you need it: trademark registrations with numbers and jurisdictions, copyrighted assets most often copied, and a one page authentication guide for your most counterfeited products. Reports assembled from a library take minutes instead of days.
Each report identifies the listings, the right infringed, and the factual basis: the visible authentication failures or the unauthorized use of protected material. Reports grounded in a test purchase or physical authentication should say so, since inspected goods carry more weight than photo suspicions.
Accuracy is the currency. Reporting genuine resale, compatible accessories properly described, or listings outside your rights undermines the channel. eBay expects rights owners to police that boundary themselves, and rewards those who do with faster, less questioned removals.
Single listing removals teach determined sellers nothing except your response time. Maintain a seller log: account names, removal dates, relist patterns, and shared tells like photos, addresses, and product mix. When a seller crosses your threshold, submit the pattern as its own report and request account level review.
For organized operations, coordinate the legal track in parallel: preserved evidence, test purchases, and counsel review. Marketplace enforcement caps out at account removal; sellers who treat new accounts as a cost of business require pressure the platform cannot apply.
For categories covered by eBay's authenticity guarantee programs, counterfeit interdiction partly happens at the platform's authentication step, which changes your monitoring: focus on categories, price points, and listing formats that route around authentication, and on sellers splitting stock across channels.
Feed what you learn back. Platforms adjust programs based on rights owner reporting patterns, and brands that share structured intelligence about new counterfeit tells get their categories watched more closely than brands that only file removals.
Related reading: Mercari Counterfeit Reporting: Protecting Brands on a Casual Marketplace, Facebook Marketplace Counterfeit Reporting: Brands in a Local First Channel, and Whatnot Counterfeit Reporting: Protecting Brands on Live Shopping.
VeRO, the Verified Rights Owner program, is eBay's system for trademark and copyright owners to report infringing listings through a formal channel. Enrolled owners submit listings with a statement of their rights, and eBay removes infringing listings and acts against repeat sellers under its policies.
VeRO covers various intellectual property rights, but a registered trademark is the cleanest basis for counterfeit goods reports. Brands without registrations should still document their rights and consider filing, since registration strengthens action on every marketplace, not just eBay.
Clear reports from rights owners in good standing are typically actioned within days, sometimes faster. Ambiguous cases, especially authenticity disputes based only on listing photos, take longer and may need test purchase evidence to resolve.
Not through counterfeit channels. Resale of genuine goods is generally lawful, and using VeRO against it violates program expectations and can jeopardize your standing. Pricing and distribution concerns belong to your dealer policies and legal counsel, not infringement reporting.