1. Litigation against 3rd party sellers is increasing exponentially.
2. Private label sellers dealing with hijackers & counterfeit goods.
3. Suspended Sellers: signs that reinstatement is probable.
4. Related account suspensions for sellers are increasing.
5. Your Guide to Amazon Suspensions – 2nd edition coming soon.
Amazon News Stories by CJ Rosenbaum
AMAZON NEWS #1:
For traditional third party sellers of branded goods, the vast majority of sellers out there selling other company’s brands, you need to be aware that the amount of litigation against you by big brands is increasing exponentially.
Brands are going to court in Chicago. (It’s the federal courthouse there. It’s called the northern district of Illinois). My team and I are admitted to practice there. It’s much easier to get orders out of the judges and the northern district of Illinois than it seems like any place else in the country.
So what happens is a brand will go into court, they will allege all sorts of counterfeit products being sold, all sorts of intellectual property infringement claims being asserted, and before you even know about the lawsuit, they will ask the judge to issue a TRO, which is a temporary restraining order. And that order, when they get it, it freezes your Amazon account, your eBay account, and all the different platforms you may be selling on.
It freezes your financial accounts. It freezes everything until the issues can be resolved. If you are a third party seller selling other brands, you need to know that the first line of defense is to try to negotiate a quick resolution.
If you’re selling 100% genuine products, you know that you’re not doing anything wrong. You know that you have the power (The First Sale Doctrine) behind you and you should feel free of contacting those lawyers explaining that you’re not doing anything wrong and they should take you out of that case. If you have some issues there, your negotiations can be a little bit different, but if you’re selling genuine products and the consumers receiving your products are what the brand sells, including the warranty, you should be able to negotiate a quick resolution.
Also, if the allegations made against you are baseless (if they have claimed you’re selling counterfeit products and you’re not), then you have a great counterclaim against that brand. So if there’s a false claim made against you, give me a call. I’m happy to speak with you for free. 1-877-9-SELLER.
You will have counterclaims that could be worth a lot of money to you in terms of damages.
AMAZON NEWS #2:
If you are a private label seller and you have built up your own intellectual property, and the monitoring cease & desist and complaint mechanism just doesn’t cut it because you have grown to a size that playing whack a mole is not financially advantageous, read below.
You should automate that process to get rid of hijackers. We help out private label sellers every single day. If you have the same problem as the big brands, you can also go to the northern district of Illinois and use that same procedure to get rid of hijackers and counterfeiters.
So both sides of the fence. If you are a traditional seller, you can be falsely accused and you need to stand up for yourself. If you’re a private label seller and someone else is hijacking your listing and selling counterfeit goods, then you need to protect your sales.
AMAZON NEWS #3:
If you’re writing a plan of action and you receive emails that seem like they’re custom written for you, that is a really good sign that reinstatement is on the horizon.
AMAZON NEWS #4:
Related account suspensions are increasing.
We don’t know if Amazon is doing another sweep of third party sellers. We don’t know if they’ve changed their algorithm, but we have seen an increased number of sellers around the world calling us that they’re getting dinged for related accounts.
AMAZON NEWS #5:
We have already published and given away thousands of copies of “Your Guide to Amazon Suspensions”. It’s our book on how sellers can avoid losing their listings and getting suspended. If you do suffer a suspension, it also teaches you how to write a great plan of action to get your listing / account back.
I am super psyched and super proud of my team that we are in the process of updating that book.
If you want a free copy of any of our books, email [email protected].
Have you been suspended on Amazon?
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