Counterfeit sellers buy ads on a brand's own name and product terms, sending search traffic to lookalike storefronts that marketplaces never see. Trademark complaints to the ad platforms work on a different track from marketplace takedowns: they need the registered mark, the ad evidence, and proof the advertiser is not an authorised seller.
A relisted copy is one of three cases. The same listing live again at the same address gets a new report that names the old one. The same seller with a new listing gets a report that shows the pattern across both listings. A listing restored after a counter notice is on a clock: the platform restores it 10 to 14 business days after the counter notice unless you tell the platform you have filed a court action or a Copyright Claims Board claim.
Counter notices belong to copyright reports. If the platform sent you a counter notice before the listing came back, the seller stated under penalty of perjury that they believe in good faith the removal was a mistake or misidentification. Under the DMCA the platform puts the material back 10 to 14 business days after it receives the counter notice, unless you tell it first that you have filed an action. Different platforms word the window slightly differently, but the shape is the same.
Do not send the same notice again. A second notice on the same listing will not hold, because the platform is following the law, not ignoring you. The two things that hold the listing inside the window are a lawsuit and a Copyright Claims Board claim, filed and reported to the platform's designated agent before restoration. A Board claim hears cases up to 30,000 dollars, the seller can opt out, and the Board cannot order a stop unless the seller agrees, so weigh the route before the window closes.
If there is no counter notice, the copy came back another way: the seller relisted, or posted a new listing with the same photos. The report should name the old listing, link the two, and ask the platform to review the seller under its repeat infringer policy. One sentence naming that policy changes the request from a page removal to an account review.
Platform rules differ in ways that matter. On eBay, an item reported as counterfeit through the VeRO program cannot be relisted, and trying can bring selling restrictions or suspension. After a photo or text removal, the seller may be able to edit the listing and relist it, so a relisted item with your photos gone can be the seller using that route. Shopify says that when it terminates a store for repeat infringement, all shops owned or operated by the same repeat infringer are subject to termination too.
Every relisting report should carry the pattern: the original listing, the takedown date, the new listing, the seller's other listings using your material, and any test purchase evidence. Platforms act faster on a documented pattern than on a single listing complaint, because the pattern asks for account level action.
Keep the file current. Counterfeiters choose products by demand signals: strong sales, high prices relative to manufacturing cost, and quality that is hard to judge from a photo. A product that was copied once will be copied again, and the second report is faster when the first one's evidence is already organized.
Keep reading: Counterfeits in Paid Search: When the Fake Listing Is an Ad, Not a Marketplace Page covers a nearby case in this series.
No. A second notice on the same listing will not hold it. Inside the 10 to 14 business day window, the routes that hold the listing are a court action or a Copyright Claims Board claim, reported to the platform's designated agent before restoration.
Check whether the platform sent you a counter notice. Counter notices apply to copyright reports only. If you reported a trademark or a counterfeit and got no counter notice, the copy came back as a relisting or a new listing.
The original listing URL, the takedown date, the new listing URL, the connection between them, and a request to review the seller under the repeat infringer policy. Pattern evidence moves faster than a single listing complaint.
No. Every major platform says it acts against repeat sellers, and none publishes the number of reports that triggers action. That is why the pattern file matters: it gives the reviewer the whole history in one report.