I received this same email today. I need to remove a few products from my shop in order to truthfully submit the form, however my shop front is disabled and I can’t access my listings.
Does anyone know if the shop front reactivates right away after submitting the form? Is it better to wait for a rep to contact back or should I submit the form first and then delete the products in question after the fact?
@DP_Development: When you signed your attestation form, were you able to immediately access your store front again?
Hey Shay I was trying to figure out what I needed to do. It says I need to remove all “copyright” images from my website. However, it is not letting me do anything on my website at all. I am blocked to even be allowed to remove them from my website. Could you please advise how I would remove these? Thank you.
This is the point. You confirm something you either wont have done, because you have no access to the dashboard, or you sign something what you would usually discuss with your lawyer before signing it.
The annoying thing is: I mean what if I would have been on holidays for two weeks? Would have come back and see that my store is deleted? Growing a business for years on a specific site like Shopify is a thing about trust. To me, shopify lost a big portion of trust yesterday. I know you have always dependencies, if you dont have a 100% self provided service (your own servers, shopsystems etc), but this is really not the way how salesmens should treat each other…
they are harassing me with this too, saying i used the word “disney” i`ve removed all the 2 mentions of it, and shown them , but they still quote the old url which has no longer “disney” mentioned in it. the Attestation form is in gobby de bleep,. i dont want to have to understand it. this nonsense is over the top
my business deal in customisation. Sometimes I do rework on apparels or footwear like Nike, converse, etc. Does removing the name on the title solve the issue? Does editing the Product URL link solve the issue?
and which box should I be checking? I have seek advice from everywhere but none is able to assist me including emailing back the email. All I got is to seek my own legal counsel for guidance ?? ?? .
Of course you are allowed to do it, if you have a licence. But shopify wants to make sure that you dont sell some copycat stuff, because all pictures, product descriptions and links are on their servers. So the form we have to sign is a disclaimer for shopify, that you do it on your own risk.
On the one hand, its a good thing, because there are a lot of freaks selling aliexpress fake trash as original labeled and trademarked stuff. On the other hand, they accept collateral damage, as shop dashboards are instant blocked and you have to react in between 7 days which also can concern honest shopify stores which are online for years.
To answer your question. If you want to sell trademarked products, you have to make sure, that you are allowed to do this and under which circumstances. But you dont get the permission through shopify, but from your wholesaler or the trademarkholder himself (disney, marvel etc).
The whole thing is an absolute nonsense. I reported an issue to Shopify several months ago when I found a substantial number of my original designs on a number of different ‘Chinese’ websites, all powered by Shopify. Despite provides all manner of screenshots and evidence they told me there was nothing they could do… and now this. Shame they can’t show the same commitment to protection for those of us that pay to use the site rather than just those outside companies with big litigation wallets.
If I may, I’d like to look a little way into the future… I sincerely doubt that Shopify have an army of eagle eyed spotters going through every webpage and product looking for the misuse of brand images or names. More likely, I would imagine, that some algorithm scans for keywords and flags sites for a deeper look. Now I can see that I am going to have to sign this bloody attestation nonsense in order to save my shop, but no doubt I will then be chased to remove whatever products or pages have offended the algorithm. The only product mentioned in the initial e-mail had the word ‘marvel’ in the title and so I am imagining this is what has got Shopify’s knickers in a twist. Problem is, the product has nothing to do with that ‘marvel’, it is not in reference to or in anyway related to that ‘marvel’, so when they come back and ask me to remove that product I think I would be well within my rights to say ‘err… no’. What do we think will happen then?
I have written every company that I sell products or brands of. The smaller companies are more likely to respond based on my experience.
Some companies want to know where you acquire your products from because it has to be from their licensed distributors or a client they have a relationship with.
I even had one small company that approved me. Wished me luck in getting the big candy makers that own dozens of brands to even respond to a permission to sell email.
At the end of the day and it doesn’t make sense to almost anyone I spoke with, the Brand owner decides who sells their products. I had one refuse because I was selling American Brands of their products and he said they couldn’t authorize me because Canada has different labeling and ingredients. Be ready for some hard NO’s, but still take those up at least they responded.
I can confirm this as I made the same experiences. I tried to produce my own style Warner and Disney fabrics. No chance as a small business to get into the circle there. The only way is through wholesalers, which have licences and are allowed to resell.
So, what do we learn from this? Become so f***ing successful, that big brands start begging you to sell their branded stuff XD
Its not even just any distributor. It has to be their liscenced ones or
forget it. You will be met with we have no relationship with that company
and then you looking into the licensed ones and they have a minimum 3 or 5k
order minimum. The one I was thinking, 5k. That’s more than my entire
stock. So as a small business your left with, closing your store down and
trying to come up with a business plan after delisting 192 products and
making it work off of 50.
Invest in your businesses ability to sell others property, get a loan. Shopify even has a system for eligible businesses https://www.shopify.com/capital
Or you could build a stable business without trademarked products to generate a stable income first and go for the trademarked and licence products later on, when you are able to afford it. If youre niche is about trademarked products, than you will have to go the step and simply pay.
I mean loans are a very good thing, when you exactly know what you are doing, and you exactly know, where to invest in your business to grow your sales. A loan to “try something out” is an uncalculated risk, which can be very expensive at the end.
I dont know how many thousands I spent with no effect, the story is endless. This and everything else is an expensive learning process and the sad truth is, that you cant buy experience.
A loan to “try something out” is an uncalculated risk, which can be very expensive at the end.
Merchants selling IP merchandise , with or without permission, should have the stats to make that calculation indicating the worth of getting merchandise to secure permission.
A real uncalculated risk , from merchants complaints in this thread, is that shopify’s current process of verification chokes on small merchants and has too many ambiguities and unanswered details that just means the only real answer is to have a lawyer handle it.
Borrowing is not something I will entertain, I am not doing this to make a living. This is more of a hobby for me and than lively hood. I invested 5k to start and reinvest those sales into restock or new stock. Either way for me, if I pull the plug I still have options available to me recoup most of the money I spent on them.
I just did what Shopify wanted and clicked their form to remove them from any wrong doing if I get sued or something. Merchants have to remember, this is Shopify’s platform and they can enforce any of their TOS and rules they wish. Either as a merchant we abide by them or have our shops closed.
My issue with this, I just have the issue that its not a blanketed process and seems to hit every business at random. I know there are candy stores on Shopify doing what I get hit for and their still doing it. I know some of the products they are selling they did not get approval for, because I was flat out told that said brand does not authorize online stores as they have their own to sell products to the web.
I would just like Shopify show a fair process and not a random one and based what I am reading it is random on how their algorithms work.
Whilst I am an authorised reseller of a trademarked item, and well permitted to sell said items as I have for over 14 years. I now see Shopify has blocked my access to my store.
Well.. Now I’m moving to an entire different platform, who don’t have draconian rules, that themselves are not following.. So Shopify will lose a long term customer over this.
I particularly like the fact that, customers can still purchase items and add to cart, but the shop owner whom is in full legal rights to sell said items, is locked out of his orders and admin console. So money will be taken and orders not processed. Not a good way to handle this shopify. -1 ratings for you to be placed now!
Also blocking any payments to you as you are NOT providing a service at all.
I just wanted to clarify for you that your access to your store’s admin is limited only while our Trust and Safety team is waiting on your attestation form and any supported documentation. This restriction is only temporary and most merchants were able to get back into their store accounts shortly after submitting their attestation.
If you check your account owner email account you should see an email from them regarding this. Please also check your junk/spam box as well if you don’t see their email in your inbox.
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