Company asked me not to sell their product

[sammoab]

I bought a large quantity of boots from a liquidation site. Many of these boots are clearly store returns and I suspect the remainder are unpopular shelf pulls. I've sold several hundred over the last 5 months on eBay. Today the manufacturer contacted me through eBay and asked me to remove the boots from eBay because I was not authorized to sell their boots. Can they do that. I bought them on the open market and reselling on the open market is the way I see it. Am I right?

[jacbarcollectibles]

Yes a Rights Owner can demand that you stop listing their items.  Many sellers have found this out as Rights Owners have become more active in controlling the sale of their items.  If you do not comply the Rights Owner can go to court an get an order for you to stop listing and can also get a judgement against you for lots of money.  This has become more prevalent in the last year or two.

[rfmtm]

Seller has every right under federal law (First Sale Doctrine) to resell any legally obtained authentic item, if they do not have a contract with the rights owner to the contrary, or otherwise infringe on the owner's rights.

Rights owners can not arbitrary just ask ebay to remove items unless their rights have been legitimately infringed upon. When rights owners abuse this right they can be taken to federal court and made to pay damages.

Unless you receive a VeRO notice and ebay has not removed your listing, you can continue selling them, as long as they are authentic and were legally obtained.  If you do get a VeRO notice and listings are removed, do not relist until the matter is resolved and come back here for more help.