Counterfeits of your product: the first steps that matter
The instinct is to report the listing and fire off an angry message. That instinct loses cases. One listing taken down is one of fifty that reappears next week under a new name, and a warning shot just tells the counterfeiter to cover their tracks. The work that actually ends it has an order to it. Here are the first five moves.
1. Stay quiet, and preserve the evidence first
The moment a seller knows you are watching, listings vanish and accounts move. Before you do anything visible, capture the proof: dated screenshots of the listing, the storefront, the seller's other items, reviews and prices. Save the web pages properly, not just a phone snap, so the date and source are baked in. This is the foundation everything else stands on, and you only get one clean shot at it.
2. Make a test purchase, done properly
A controlled test purchase turns a suspicion into hard evidence. It confirms the goods are counterfeit, and it quietly hands you a payment trail, a dispatch address and sometimes the supplier. Done to an evidential standard, unopened where it needs to be, logged and photographed, it is the exhibit that makes a platform or a court take you seriously. Done casually, it is worth far less.
3. Make sure your own rights are watertight
Enforcement runs on registered rights. A registered trade mark lets you use a platform's brand-protection programme (such as Amazon's Brand Registry or eBay's VeRO) to remove listings fast, and it is the basis of any legal claim. If your designs or packaging are protected too, you have more levers. The stronger your paperwork, the quicker and cheaper every later step becomes.
4. Find the source, not just the shopfront
The account selling the fakes is rarely the operation making them. If you only swat listings, you play whack-a-mole forever. The decisive move is identifying who is actually behind it, lawfully, and tracing the goods back to the source. A court can compel a marketplace or payment provider to disclose who is behind an account through a Norwich Pharmacal order. Hit the source and the listings stop coming.
5. Choose the route that ends it
With evidence and an identity in hand, you can pick the move that actually closes the matter: a letter before action with real teeth, a customs application that lets Border Force seize counterfeit shipments before they ever reach a buyer, takedowns at scale across platforms, or court proceedings for the serious ones. The choice depends on where the goods are made, how big the operation is, and what you want at the end. The earlier moves are what give you that choice.
The mistake that undoes good cases. Tipping off the seller, or buying evidence sloppily, can collapse an otherwise strong position. Get the order of moves right before you act, not after.
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This guide is general information, not legal advice. Nothing here is advice until terms are agreed in writing.