Counterfeit and brand complaints

We are a directory. We do not sell anything, we hold no stock, we ship nothing and we take no commission on a trade between a buyer and a dealer. Every listing is written by the shop that owns it, and the price on it is theirs.

That is the whole basis on which this page works. We can remove a listing and we can tell you who wrote it. We cannot inspect goods we have never held, and we will not pretend otherwise.

Nehru Place trades in refurbished machines, open-box units and stock imported through routes other than a brand's Indian distributor. That is ordinary, lawful commerce, and a listing is not a counterfeit listing because a brand would rather it did not exist.

We will not remove a listing on the basis that goods are parallel-imported, refurbished, out of warranty in India, or sold below a brand's expected price. If a brand's complaint amounts to that, we will say so and we will keep the listing up.

A specific allegation, about a specific listing, from the rights holder or somebody authorised in writing to act for them. In practice that means: counterfeit goods described as genuine; a trade mark or logo used on a listing by a shop with no right to use it; copied product photography or text; or a claim of authorised-dealer status that is not true.

A complaint has to name the listing by its URL, name the right and where it is registered, say what specifically is wrong with that listing, and confirm the complainant believes in good faith that the use is not authorised. Send it to the grievance address on this site.

We pass the complaint to the shop it names, in full, minus nothing except a complainant's personal contact details. They have seven days to answer.

This is the part that protects a dealer, and it is why the process exists rather than a delete button. A takedown route with no right of reply is a mechanism a competitor can use to remove a rival's listing with a form, and this market is small enough that somebody would.

For a counterfeit allegation with evidence, the listing is hidden while it is looked at, because the harm of leaving a fake up is done to a buyer who cannot undo it. For everything else — a logo, a photograph, a disputed claim — the listing stays up while the shop answers.

Whichever way it goes, the shop is told what was decided and why. A listing removed on our decision can be appealed once, to a person who did not make the first decision.

A shop that is found more than twice to have listed counterfeit goods loses its account. That is not a warning system with an unlimited ceiling.

A complainant who repeatedly sends notices we find to be about lawful parallel imports, or about a competitor rather than a right, will be told we are no longer acting on them without a court order. Both of those are stated here so neither is a surprise.

It is not legal advice, and it is not a finding about anybody. We are not a court and we do not decide who owns a right — we decide what appears on our own directory, which is a much smaller question.

Nothing here stops a rights holder or a dealer going to court. It is what we do in the meantime, published in advance so that both of them know.