Tortiously interference with Dealer Agreements? - cease and desist letter

[endo]

Hi. Thanks for this forum.

I'm an ebay seller (out of my garage) and got a cease and desist letter I would have never expected.

It's from an attorney at Nelson Mullins and he states he represents a parent company that owns/distributes some products I sell.

I buy all my stuff on clearance from legit online retailers outright with no special requests from them. Everything I sell is genuine. Most of my items are pretty cheap (less than $30).

The letter claims that I am unauthorized to sell their product since I am not an registered authorized dealer (which I can't be by their rules since I don't own a brick/mortar) and so they assume I am buying from authorized dealers for resale, which is a violation of the contract between the online retailers, and the parent company. They do not identify which retailers are in this contract.

Their claim of my wrongdoing is that I am "tortiously interfering with the Dealer Agreement" between them & the retailer and "inducing" these retailers to sell to me for the purpose of resale.

Oddly, they did not send the letter certified, and they addressed it to my eBay handle, not to me by name.

They gave me 2 weeks to stop selling their stuff (which they don't identify in the letter, so I'm not 100 percent sure which products are an issue) or become an authorized dealer. After two weeks if my items are still listed they stated "we reserve the right to pursue further legal action".

Is this just an empty threat? What's the best course of action at this point?

I don't want pull any listings if they are just scaring people to keep prices artificially high, however I don't want to have to hire an attorney if they sue (but if they sued, I'd likely pull the listings at that point).

Thanks again!

[Modee]

There are some companies (example, Christina Audigier, Louis Vuitton, etc.) that do not allow anyone other than authorized reps to sell their products (new). (Used - most anyone may sell anything.)

Other companies, such as for example Apple, allow others to sell their (new) goods, but are very aggressive about shutting down anything that infringes on their design or utility patents or trademarks.

In this instance you very badly need tech support to address this issue. Ignoring the cease and desist letter is not a good idea.

[endo]

Thanks for the reply.

East0n-Bell sports in my case.

With regard to apple they are able to legally stop someone from selling as new? So if bought an apple and decided without opening I didn't want it and sold on ebay they could file a case and win?

You mentioned used items. What if I flagged everything as used until I get it sorted out?

Thinking of hiring a lawyer to respond for me. It's basically bullying. They should be going after the retailer selling to me as they are the ones breaking the contract IMO.