Hello Shopify Team & Fellow Merchants,
I am reaching out to bring attention to a serious issue of repeated DMCA abuse that has been significantly affecting my business.
For the past year, my store has been targeted by TUOTENG E-BUSINESS CO., LIMITED (jcarpart.com), a direct competitor, who has been repeatedly filing false DMCA complaints against my store using Shopify’s online form. Despite submitting counter notices each time, TUOTENG has never pursued legal action, which strongly suggests that their complaints are purely intended to disrupt our business rather than protect legitimate copyrights.
🚨 Key Issues:
- Shopify automatically suspends products for 10-14 business days upon receiving a DMCA complaint, even when the claim is baseless. This causes significant business disruptions.
- TUOTENG has filed multiple complaints over the past year, each time targeting different products. However, they never follow up with legal action, indicating a clear pattern of abuse.
- The DMCA complaint details are not visible to us, making it difficult to fully address the claims or understand why Shopify is approving their takedown requests.
- Shopify’s review process remains unclear—we do not know how Shopify determines whether content is infringing before acting on a complaint.
- We believe TUOTENG (jcarpart.com) has also targeted other competitors in a similar manner, using Shopify’s DMCA system as a tool for unfair competition.
📢 What We Are Requesting from Shopify:
- An investigation into TUOTENG’s repeated misuse of the DMCA system and potential flagging of their account for abuse.
- More transparency on the DMCA review process, including what criteria Shopify uses to approve or reject takedown requests.
- A way to dispute abusive complaints more efficiently to prevent competitors from using Shopify’s system as a tool for unfair business practices.
📌 Important Details About the Reported Product:
The reported product is a generic aftermarket automotive part that is widely available in the market. Our product images are original and taken by our team, with high-resolution files and metadata as proof. The product titles and descriptions only contain standard technical specifications, commonly used across the industry, with no unique or creative elements.
As legitimate Shopify merchants, we respect intellectual property rights, but the DMCA system should not be used as a weapon against fair competition. I hope Shopify can take a closer look at this issue and implement safeguards to prevent similar abuse cases in the future.
📌 Related Ticket IDs for Reference:
- Ticket ID: 3e9c3e46-39fc-41bc-968e-b4ba3e03f5de
- Ticket ID: 7958148d-909e-474a-be12-b70b5a7c0d48
If any other merchants have faced similar DMCA abuse, please share your experiences below. We appreciate Shopify’s attention to this matter and look forward to an official response.
