Receiving an Amazon IP Complaint: When a Brand Refuses to Retract & When Retractions aren’t Recorded by Amazon
When a brand makes a complaint against you, the number one goal that we have as your lawyer is to get that complaint retracted.
If you’re able to get the complaint retracted, that opens up your account / listing faster than anything else. The reason why it’s faster is because Amazon is now out of the frame and it has no liability. We’re still insanely successful at winning complaints on the Amazon platform, but the best thing to do is get a retraction.
Now, when brands refuse to retract, you need to put fear into those brands. More importantly, to the corporate brand manager. As we have grown from helping private label sellers protect their brands, we also now help a handful of brands.
As an Amazon seller, if the complaint is baseless, if it’s a false counterfeit claim, assert your rights to that brand manager. If you were selling genuine products, there’s nothing that takes that product outside of the first sale doctrine. Point that out to the brand manager. Let him / her know that their complaint is totally baseless. Let them know they are potentially on the hook for your damages. When you get a brand or a private label seller to agree to retract their complaint, it has to be submitted to Amazon in a very particular way or Amazon will not log it in. We’re seeing a worsening of this system with Amazon staff in India having been sent home from the coronavirus.
The retraction has to say that the complaint was made in error. The brand must admit that the complaint was wrong. They don’t have to write exactly that. We were wrong, we made a mistake. But they need to write that the products were genuine or some other verbiage to Amazon to indicate that the complaint should never have been made against you.
If you’ve received an Amazon IP complaint and need help,