We are committed to protecting the intellectual property rights of third parties and to providing our members with a safe place to trade. We created the Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) Programme so that intellectual property owners could easily report listings that infringe their rights.

If you are a Verified Rights Owner and want to report a listing issue, see Reporting Intellectual Property Infringements.

To avoid creating listings that would infringe on intellectual property rights:

• Take eBay's tutorial on Intellectual Property Policies and VeRO.

• Read eBay's Guidelines for Creating Legally Compliant Listings.

• Review list of VeRO Programme Participant About Me pages. Many VeRO Programme participants have created an About Me page that contains information about their policies protecting their intellectual property rights.

• Do not use another member’s pictures or descriptions without their permission. For more information, see Item Description and Picture Theft.

Listings removed through VeRO

If your listing was removed because of a breach of the VeRO programme and you believe that your listing was removed in error, eBay suggests that you first try to contact the rights owner directly. (The email notifying you that your listing had been removed should have included the rights owner's email address.) Only the rights owner understands their products and intellectual property rights. If the rights owner agrees that they made a mistake, have them email eBay and eBay will allow you to re-list your item.

• Avoid having your listing removed through VeRO in the future. Review the list of VeRO Programme Participant About Me pages. Participants have created an About Me page that contains information designed to help you understand why they requested the removal of your listing.

• How eBay helps to ensure that listings aren’t mistakenly removed. A rights owner reporting through VeRO must be registered through VeRO before reporting items to us. Rights owners sign legally binding documents when reporting items to eBay.

• How your personal information may be released. eBay will never give out your credit card information, except in rare cases when required by a court, or law enforcement agency. However, eBay’s Privacy Policy states, "we can (and you authorize us to) disclose your User ID, name, street address, town/city, county, postcode, country, phone number, email, and company name to eBay VeRO Program participants as we in our sole discretion believe necessary or appropriate in connection with an investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringement, piracy, or other unlawful activity."

Do you understand the rights owner’s claim, understand eBay’s policies, and still believe that the rights owner made a mistake in reporting your listing? If so, please email us.

Related Help topics

• Why eBay May Remove Your Listing

• Prohibited, Questionable, and Infringing Items