A reader wrote to me telling me that her auction was pulled from eBay, and wondered if I knew anything that might help her figure out why. What I discovered amazed me.

The auction in question was a Chanel necklace. Our reader, Marina, bought the necklace from an estate sale. She listed the necklace on eBay, which then pulled the auction citing VERO.

VERO is eBay's "Verified Rights Owner" program for protecting intellectual property. EBay allows any person or company who holds intellectual property rights (such as a copyright, trademark or patent) become a VeRO program member. EBay has a page explaining the VERO program at http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/vero-program.html.

Here's Chanel's explanation of its participation in eBay's VERO program from its AboutMe page http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/chanelusa

"CHANEL has expended considerable resources to develop and maintain a reputation for providing the highest quality products and services to its customers. Through the auction of counterfeit merchandise, people attempt to trade off of CHANEL's well-earned reputation. These auctions not only cause monetary damage, but also damage CHANEL's reputation, as many of the purchasers of inferior counterfeit products will attribute the poor quality merchandise to Chanel. Having spent many years cultivating its strong reputation, CHANEL must take action to ensure that online auctions of counterfeit goods are ended, even by single-item sellers."

I wrote to Chanel, and its lawyer contacted Marina and sent her an email: >>>> This message is written to you on behalf of Chanel, Inc. ("Chanel"). Chanel believes that the necklace you offered for sale on eBay is an infringing copy of a genuine Chanel necklace. If you wish, you may send your necklace to us at the following address for verification of authenticity:

Keats McFarland & Wilson LLP
Attention: Ben Lifshitz
9720 Wilshire Blvd.,
Penthouse Suite,
Beverly Hills, CA 90212

Chanel endeavors to authenticate suspect merchandise in a timely manner, however, the authentication process requires review of all collateral information about the item you possess and may take some time. In addition, Chanel's experts reviewed your item again and confirmed that it appears to be fake. Therefore, it is likely that the authentication of your item would yield the same result. However, if Chanel verifies that your necklace is genuine, you will be allowed to relist it for sale on eBay. Regardless of its authenticity, your necklace will be returned to you. <<<<

What happens when you want to buy a designer item at an estate sale or auction that you think may be a genuine article, but there is no receipt? Think twice. Even if you have a receipt, if a VERO participant believes your item to be a reproduction, and it asks eBay to pull the auction, eBay WILL pull the auction. Apparently eBay does not warn the seller or ask for proof of authenticity. A kind of "shoot now, ask questions later" policy.

So, if you were like me and thought VERO was only for illegal software and music recordings and the like, beware! Your designer necklace auction may be choked in midstream.

Here's a list of VERO participants: http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/vero-aboutme.html