Vital News for Sellers to Avoid Suspensions and Get Listings and Accounts Back
Increase for Amazon Sellers Receiving 72 Hour Notices with IP Complaints
Great Amz Sellers’ News 9-18-19: DECREASE in Listing Violation Pricing Suspensions & Restricted Product Suspensions; Increase in 72 Hour Notices with INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY /RIGHTS OWNER COMPLAINTS; Increase in High ODR Rate Suspensions; VORYS letters and Victoria’s Secret may have a secret deal with Amazon for brand protection.
Welcome to another day of Amz Sellers’ News 9-18-19. Today was another day with no listing violation suspensions based upon pricing. Also, we had zero restricted product suspensions. 72-hour notices with intellectual property rights complaints are up. Suspensions for high ODR rates continue to climb. There must’ve been a whole lot of Vorys letters sent because we received multiple calls about Vorys letters. If you’re a third-party seller selling other brands, you may have received a letter from the Vorys law firm. And we have seen another wave of letters going out the door. Now, the good news is that a significant portion of the claims that Vorys asserts against sellers are 100% baseless. Some of the claims have merit, and I can’t tell you whether yours is baseless. Some of the claims have merit or a combination of the two, without actually seeing the letter.
Amazon has not accused sellers, as far as we are aware, of price gouging, or improperly accused sellers of price gouging. We have not received one of those calls, emails or chats in three days. That’s excellent news for sellers. Also, the number of calls, chats, and emails that we have received regarding restricted product suspensions has gone down.
We are continuing to see an increase in 72-hour notices where sellers have received intellectual property rights complaints. We are seeing an increase in the number of sellers where Amazon is actually making phone calls to you, and you have to be prepared for those calls. Now, I spoke to sellers who are outside the United States today. We had multiple sellers yesterday. 72-hour notices mean you have to try and get retractions right away. Do a legal analysis to show that you’re not violating anybody’s intellectual property rights. Get a plan of action out the door that refers to the legal opinion letter and also shows your attempt to get those IP complaints retracted.
High ODR rate suspensions continue to climb. Watch your rate. If you need to pull back on certain listings, if you need to change your shipping mechanism, if you need to change your packaging, you need to do it before your ODR rate goes up. You do not want a high ODR rate suspension. If you get one, you need to have a really concise, persuasive plan of action with a tremendous focus on the long-term changes to your business that will assure the staff at Amazon that your ODR rate will go back down to acceptable levels.
Now we don’t know whether Victoria’s Secret has made a deal with Amazon, where Amazon is going to protect Victoria’s Secret products, but we are seeing an increase in the number of phone calls, chats through our website, and emails being sent to us, where Amazon is sending intellectual property right issues to sellers without an email from Victoria’s Secret.
