In short: Enforcement is how Zeal gets infringements taken down. Either a person or an Auto-Enforcement rule decides what to enforce, and Zeal then tracks each takedown until the item comes down.
Understanding enforcement
Enforcement is the last step of the Zeal workflow, where your moderation work turns into removals. Zeal sends a takedown notice to whoever can remove the infringement, such as a marketplace, social media platform or website host, then keeps checking whether it's been taken down.
You can enforce posts (listings, social media posts and webpages), accounts (sellers and usernames) and websites (whole domains).
Learn more: Understanding the Zeal Workflow
1. Two ways to enforce
The key difference is who decides that an item should be taken down.
| Manual enforcement | Auto-Enforcement |
Who decides | A person, item by item | A rule, set up in advance |
How it starts | Someone clicks Enforce, Check & Enforce or Validate & Enforce | Any new post that matches the rule is enforced straight away |
Best for | Anything that needs a judgement call | Clear-cut infringements you'd always take down, such as confirmed counterfeits |
Covers | Posts, accounts and websites | Posts |
Note: Auto-Enforcement sends notices without a person reviewing each item, so it's set up carefully and only used for high-confidence cases.
Learn more: Auto-Enforcement Rules
2. How notices are sent
Once an item is enforced, its takedown notice is sent in one of two ways, depending on the platform:
Sent by Zeal: for most platforms, Zeal sends the notice for you by email, API, IP portal or webform.
Filed by you: some platforms don't connect to Zeal, so the report is filed on the platform itself and then marked as sent in Zeal, so it can still be tracked.
Either way, every notice appears in the Enforcement section, where you can see what's queued, what's been sent and what's been removed.
Learn more: List of Enforceable Domains (Manual & Automated)
3. What happens after a notice is sent
Sending the notice is only half the job; Zeal then tracks the result for you.
Enforcement View: Where notices are managed and tracked
Tracked: Zeal re-checks each item and updates its Takedown Status to Up or Down. Checks are most frequent in the first 30 days and continue for up to a year.
Re-enforced if needed: if an item is still up, it can be enforced again.
Tip: Want to look at enforced data? The following filters can help:
Date filter with Takedown Sent as the activity date to choose when notices were sent, for example Last 30 days.
Enforcement filter to narrow those items by Notice Status (such as Notice in Progress or Notice Processed), by Automated/Manual, or by Enforcement Type.
Learn more: Takedown Status Filter · How to Find Enforced Data
4. What Zeal needs to enforce
Platforms only act on complete notices, so a few things need to be in place for your Organisation, such as a Letter of Authorisation and your IP certificates.
If anything is missing, Zeal flags the item with a validation error and holds the notice until it's fixed, so nothing incomplete is sent.
Learn more: Enforcement Workflow
Quick reference
If you want to know… | Look at… |
The difference between manual enforcement and Auto-Enforcement | 1. Two ways to enforce |
How a notice reaches the platform | 2. How notices are sent |
Whether an item has been taken down | 3. What happens after a notice is sent |
Why a notice hasn't been sent | 4. What Zeal needs to enforce |
The step-by-step process |