My product has been restricted on the first shipment due to some wording on the listing. Is getting it unrestricted likely on appeal?

#1

Have spent a lot of time and effort on this product and getting this shipment through. The listing never went live - it became ‘Stranded Inventory’ (Restricted ASIN) when it arrived at the warehouse. This was because the listing had the word ‘pneumonia’ in it, so it fell under the ‘unauthorized health claims’ category.

The only health claims the product itself makes are from the EU health claim database (UK, EU and Amazon compliant). It does not mention the word ‘pneumonia’ in it at all. The only place where that word is mentioned is in one line of my listing. I got rid of the line (so the listing had no health claims) and went for the ‘Relist’ option under ‘Stranded Inventory’. I then received an email telling me my product has been restricted and I must schedule the shipment to be sent back or removed. There was no mention of any option of getting it relisted in the Amazon catalogue.

I have contacted seller support to appeal this, and apologised. It is taking some time for them to get back to me, and I am a bit worried now. The product is renowned for it’s benefits to the immune system and I didn’t think it was controversial to write that studies have shown it can be effective in protecting from acute respiratory infections such as the common cold, flu and pneumonia.

What are the chances that they allow me to relist this product? I was really relying on Amazon FBA.

#2

Have you tried emailing this email and sending in a request for approval?

eu-life-safety-equipment@amazon.co.uk

I am writing to ask for approval for selling this product ASIN ********** My product is a ******** and was restricted due to the keywords ***** being used in the listing.

  • Company name
  • Vendor Code
  • Email address
  • Phone number
  • The EU countries where you are listing your ASINs
  • A list of ASINs you are applying to sell
#3

I have not. I already have a support ticket open with them (my appeal) so not sure if e-mailing other departments will help at this point.

#4

It helped speed up the process for me, my product was also taken down due to keywords it seems it was just an automatic procedure, I had to email this department and send it on to seller support to get the listing reinstated. It took a couple of weeks going back and forward and they messed up as only activated one of the child ASINs and not the whole family so I had to run through the process again but got there in the end.

#5

Very reassuring to know that they reinstated your listings.

Did you also get a restricted product removal notification?

How long did it take for them to tell you that your listings will be reinstated? I have gotten two emails so far thanking me for my patience during their investigation - though I’m not sure why the investigation doesn’t just take 2 seconds :slight_smile:.

#6

It took 2 or 3 days from restricted to reinstatement but as they only selected one of the ASINS rather than the 8 that I sent them there was a bit of back and forward which in total took around 2 weeks.

Email for reference, I had to then send screenshots of this to seller support although I’m not sure if that was just me being impatient or there is another internal department which also had it restricted.

Greetings,

Thank you for your interest in selling on Amazon.

Currently the products you want to sell do not raise Product Safety concerns.

Therefore, your case has been verified and approved from Product Safety side. Please allow one business day for those to become live on the website.

We are sorry for any inconvenience encountered and we appreciate your patience and cooperation in this important matter.

Best Regards,

Cornelia O.
Amazon.co.uk Product Compliance

#7

Thank you, feeling more hopeful now. My stock is currently in the FBA warehouse and they asked me to remove it within 30 days - if my appeal is successful in those 30 days and the listing gets reinstated, they wouldn’t still want me to remove the stock (then re-ship) right?

Sorry if that sounds like a silly question, just seems like Amazon follow a very strict set of rules so I wouldn’t put something like this passed them.

#8

I’m not sure tbh, I think the removal order is suspended while the team investigate. I had created a dummy listing for my product to get clearance before ordering any stock.