Selling fakes on Reddit - is it allowed or not?

Regarding the thread about selling clothing, the moderator Mokry stated:

If that’s really how things work—and we all know from experience that you can't just hawk knockoffs at a local flea market or a vendor stall—then why on earth is selling counterfeits permitted over in the Estée Lauder subforum? I mean, couldn't they just be transparent and label them as fakes?🤷 I'm just pointing out a few instances here, though there are plenty more if one cares to look:

Does this specific law apparently only apply to certain sections of Reddit?

P.S. I did try asking the moderator over in the Estée Lauder section nicely enough, but my inquiry was met with nothing but silence. So, I suppose I'll just ask here. And please, I am begging, could someone answer me without resorting to those usual tired critiques of my online persona, or throwing out the classic accusations of "trolling" as a way to justify a ban or a strike? That would be appreciated. Thank you.

Lisa Nelson70 said:P.S. I tried asking the moderators over at Estée Lauder, but they completely blew me off. So, I’m coming here instead. Please, just give me an answer without the usual lectures about my "online persona," or those classic accusations and bans for supposedly "trolling." Thanks.

Look, let's be real... avoiding first impressions is incredibly hard. Honestly, it's nearly impossible. That goes for real life just as much as it does on the internet.

Here’s a perfect example: I clicked on your thread because I was actually interested in the issue you raised. But then, you immediately pointed out your own "troubled" history on this site. I took a quick look, saw you've only been a member for a few months, and saw a mountain of warnings from all sorts of different users. For me, that instantly stripped about 80% of the weight from whatever you're claiming. Even if what you're saying is 100% true.

And you can't exactly pin that on the Estée Lauder mods.

Maybe try giving them a fair shot at answering before you storm over to PŽK? (And yes, the legend is true—mods aren't glued to their screens 24/7! 😲 ) Or perhaps just phrase your question in a way that doesn't set everyone on edge? 🤷

ambermason16 said:I saw piles of cardboard from all over the place. For me, that automatically makes everything you're claiming lose at least 80% of its credibility. Though, maybe it actually is true.

Confused.

The sentence in the quoted post literally says, "Both perfumes are FAKE!!! ". Even if we strip away 80% of her credibility, we are still left with—well—the sentence "Both perfumes are FAKE!!! ". Which is, you know, just a tiny bit illegal.

It’s a quoted sentence—it isn't a paraphrase, nor is it about personal impressions where some random internet user's opinion or work should be treated as grounds for judgment. It's like... you report a crime, and then the cop starts digging through your neighbor's apple tree from twenty years ago. "A-ha!!! You stole apples!!! You've got nothing to report to me, come on, move along in small groups!!!"

BTW, how can a quoted sentence be perhaps true? 😕

...or could you ask the question in a slightly less aggressive way? 🤷

Which part of the question was "aggressive"? 😕

"If that's the case (and it is, since we know from experience that selling imitations is banned at street stalls), why is selling fakes allowed on the Estée Lauder sub-forum, provided you just state they are fake?"

Oh my god, here we go again! What are you, some kind of PeŽeKa lawyer who just decided to set up shop here without even giving us a heads-up? Seriously, I can’t even open a thread and get through three posts without tripping over you and your little legal firm. If you’re busy playing defense for some Matlock type, at least try reading the posts with a shred of comprehension before you start making your case. Personally, I’m going to skip the reading entirely, but I’m sure someone else will come running to your rescue.

To save us all some server space, let me get ahead of you: I’m offering my objective opinion here as both a fellow moderator and a regular user commenting on the OP. You... should probably find a different bus to catch. 🤷

ambermason16 said:Let me jump the gun here just to save some precious server space: I’m offering my objective perspective as a colleague to the self-proclaimed moderators and as a regular Redditor weighing in on the OP... do you... need a bus ride? 🤷

WTF, "colleague to the self-proclaimed moderators"?! What kind of bizarre job title is that? Are the moderators on United Airlines following some "one for all, all for one" squad mentality or something? 😕

Before replying, I actually checked—you aren't a moderator over at Estée Lauder. So, if we ignore this whole idea of some "universal brotherhood of moderators" 🙄, my presence here and yours start from the exact same baseline. Posts, complaints, comments. That's it.

It would be incredibly easy for you to save yourself the dramatic exclamation points by simply ignoring this. But me? I guess I can't even manage that. 🙂

Whether I’m reading this with logic or without it, I still don't grasp how someone's "paper-thin history" somehow causes an 80% loss in value quoting the sentence "Both perfumes are fake!"

Nicholas King said:WTF, "colleague of the so-called female moderators"?! What kind of weird role is that? Are the United Airlines moderators some sort of brotherhood—one for all, all for one? 😕

I checked before replying—you aren't a moderator over at Rhode Island. So, if we ignore this whole "intergalactic moderator kinship" thing 🙄, my input and yours start from the exact same baseline. Messages, complaints, comments.

It’s quite easy to save yourself the heavy exclamation points just by ignoring it. I, apparently, can't even manage that. 🙂

Whether I read it with understanding or without, I still don't see how someone's "cardboard history" affects the 80% loss in value when quoting the sentence "Both perfumes are fake!".

What's even the issue??? I mean, I am a colleague, but it doesn't matter.

You didn't actually read her post carefully, because if you had, you wouldn't be writing this; it would be clear what she meant. Her status as a moderator is irrelevant if we're talking about rule violations, and counterfeits are definitely violations.

And don't worry, someone will answer the question from the original post. Just have a little patience.

So, here we are. After my initial question has sat right there on Reddit in two different places for three full days now—and mind you, the moderators have been active on the site every single day during this period—and not a single soul in charge has deigned to respond, I’ve come to a few rather weary conclusions:

1. With great power comes great responsibility—or so they say. The moderators over at the cosmetics sub certainly wield the "power" to hand out warnings or issue bans, but that authority should naturally come with the obligation to actually uphold the laws of the United States.

2. When someone points out that certain actions aren't just mere "mistakes," but actual violations of the Law, there seems to be a concerted effort to discredit them using whatever tools are at hand. It follows that old, tired logic: if you aren't one of us, you must be against us. It’s precisely that mindset that keeps earning me warnings and bans on this particular subreddit.

3. One has to wonder if the moderators are even aware that they are openly green-lighting the illegal sale of counterfeit goods.
Even if they were genuinely oblivious to the fact that this is illegal—which, frankly, is a bit embarrassing for people tasked with managing a community and knowing the basic regulations they are supposed to enforce—I still have to ask: if there was some backroom agreement between administration and mods to allow these counterfeit ads to stay up, where were they when those deals were being struck? Actually, never mind that last part; the answer feels pretty obvious already.

4. It also seems quite clear that they’ve realized they messed up. A few moderators have surfaced here, and I highly doubt anyone had to tip them off about this thread, yet instead of simply admitting the error and ensuring it doesn't happen again, they refuse to address the core question from my opening post. I suppose they just think I'm trolling again.🙄 It’s a shame, really, because the opening post includes the quotes that prove all of this. Of course, those quotes can always be deleted—which will undoubtedly happen—but enough people have already seen this thread that scrubbing it will be a case of too little, too late.

It is truly a pity for Reddit when its own staff fails to follow the very rules they demand everyone else obey.👎 (I don't think anyone can hide behind the "we can't monitor every single post" excuse, because we all know from experience that posts are monitored closely and reactions are usually quite swift.) Not to mention the blatant ignoring or outright tolerating of illegal activity.

ambermason16 said:Look, here's how I see it: I clicked on your thread because I thought there might be an actual issue. Then you basically pointed out your own "troublemaker" history on Reddit. I checked your profile, saw you've been around for a few months, and saw a mountain of bans from all over the place. For me, that instantly makes whatever you're claiming about this situation worth about 20% of what it was. Even if you're actually telling the truth.

Without getting dragged into the specific issue the OP brought up—because honestly, it's pretty obvious—I just want to ask one thing. How can someone who openly admits they can't be objective claim that a "problematic" user's complaint carries less weight than anyone else's? Especially when, in this case, their reputation doesn't change the facts of the complaint at all. Isn't objectivity supposed to be the whole point of being a moderator?

And look, hollowtrucker77, once you personally ban me or ask someone else to do it, please actually answer this. It affects all of us regular users. Does it even matter if I report posts or flag rule violations if I've got, say, nine pages of bans under my belt? What’s the vibe with the other mods? Would they even take my reports seriously, or would they just view everything through a biased lens because of my history, regardless of the actual content?

DMs are fine. Just skip the empty clichés about how I'm "not anyone's lawyer."

Thanks for the reply, makes total sense now.

The whole issue with counterfeits is way more complicated than just slapping down a rule saying they’re banned, or conversely, deciding it’s fine as long as you slap a "fake" disclaimer on the listing.

Here are a few scenarios that have popped up—and honestly, still do:
1. Someone is selling a fake without even realizing it themselves. Cosmetics are notorious for being high-quality knockoffs; you'll see girls buying stuff on eBay thinking it's the real deal, only to turn around and list it here on Reddit without knowing it's a counterfeit. We even have entire threads dedicated to spotting fakes because, let's be real, it isn't always easy to tell.
In most of these cases, other users spot the fake first. They send me proof, I reach out to the sellers, and usually, the sellers either admit they didn't know and update the listing to say it's a fake, or they just pull the item from sale entirely.
2. Someone sells a fake but doesn't disclose it. Then someone else calls them out. Now I'm stuck in the middle—I don't actually know if it's a fake or not, and the seller is swearing up and down that it's authentic. In those moments, I'll edit the listing to warn potential buyers that there's a chance it might be counterfeit. This obviously tanks the price, because nobody wants to pay full retail for something that might be a dud. I've probably screwed over a few honest sellers this way, indirectly hitting their wallets because the product was actually real but they ended up having to sell it at a discount. But what can I do? My point is, making that call is incredibly difficult.🤷
3. Someone sells a fake without disclosing it, but you absolutely cannot tell from the photos for several reasons:
a) It's a stock photo from the internet, so it's not even an actual shot of the item being sold.
b) The lighting or angle makes it impossible to see the telltale signs (like if someone takes a photo of open blush where you can't see the lid or the bottom of the pan—which is usually how you spot a fake).
c) The item isn't in its original packaging, like a perfume decant, so there's no box or bottle to inspect for authenticity.
In almost all these situations, things get messy. People end up losing money thinking they bought the real thing, and then you get the full circus: drama, public call-outs, accusations, threats, you name it. And I haven't done anything to stop it because, frankly, I don't know what I *can* do.

Up until about six months to a year ago, selling fakes was strictly prohibited. Since we implemented the rule that says "selling fakes is allowed as long as you clearly state it's a fake," these blowups happen way less often. Why? Mainly because people would rather take whatever cash they can get for a product while keeping their reputation intact (meaning they can keep selling on this platform) rather than trying to pass off a fake as an original and getting their name dragged through the mud for months. If you do that, you basically seal your own fate and ensure you can never sell anything here again.

As far as I'm concerned, sure, we could just ban counterfeits altogether.
Look, I'm not a lawyer, and I don't know every single US consumer law by heart. I'm assuming it's illegal to sell copies, even if you label them as copies. But then I have to wonder: how is it perfectly legal for companies to sell "inspired by" fragrances or cheap dupes that carry names nearly identical to the originals? Take a look at this: http://www.parfumi-fm.com/?klasicni-parfemi-15-ml.,99
I mean, isn't a fake, by definition, a product that uses the same identity as the original but isn't the original?

P.S. Lisa Nelson70, which moderator were you asking about this issue, and when? Please, give me an answer so I can finally satisfy my curiosity.😁 And where else did you post these questions?

Since you've brought this topic up, do you have any suggestions on how we should handle these specific scenarios? It's always easiest to just say "yes" or "no" to something, but it's never that simple.😁, but they better have some actual solutions ready for the fallout from that decision 😉.

...just to throw an example out there...it's technically illegal to pirate or reproduce any copyrighted book without the author's permission, yet we see thousands of pages being copied at every local FedEx Office every single day. And yet, I don't think I've ever heard of a single print shop getting shut down for it...

...even though it's against the law, the inspectors just look the other way. Honestly, the government probably gets more out of the tax revenue from those copy shops and all their side services than they would from book sales—especially since nobody's actually buying the books anyway for all the obvious reasons...

I don't know much about the legal side of things, but in America, you can find counterfeit tech being sold right in the middle of major shopping malls.🤷

I’ve walked through stores and seen DreamBox satellite receivers clearly labeled as DM800Hd clones 😵

They're just illegal Chinese knockoffs of an actual German receiver, yet they're sitting there on display in our biggest retail hubs inside supposedly reputable big-box electronics stores.😕