PoA for IP violations keeps getting rejected & account is deactivated. Please help!

#20

Hi all.

It has been over a week since my last submission and I still haven’t heard anything from Amazon Seller team. The AAH specialist team also haven’t responded to my latest query regarding how long this is going to take/why I haven’t received a response yet.

Any ideas what I can do next? I really want to get my account back up and running.

@Dhoni_Amazon - Please can you help?

Thanks in advance!

#21

i believe thats a good thing - lots of sellers have mentioned uploading an appeal only to get it rejected immediately which seems to be done by bots so the fact you haven’t heard anything possibly means its been passed to a human

#22

Try to be patient. I know that’s easier said than done, but at least your POA hasn’t been rejected out of hand, which suggests that it’s been passed onto a live human being for consideration.

The trouble is, that human being may have a huge pile of POAs to work through, and he/she may be attempting to read each one properly before coming to a decision.

#23

one quick question - when you were suspended, was it a suspected IP violation that amazon picked up on or were you actually reported by your supplier - the Brand Owner - and had a Reported IP Violation ?

If it was the latter, did you get a retraction notice from them ?

#24

Hi, it was reported IP violation from the brand owner. I asked for a retraction now that i have removed the listing but they are asking for me to recover their losses in order to get a retraction from them - which I can’t do. It was genuinely an honest error on my part and im hoping Amazon will see that.

#25

Hi all,

Amazon finally responded today but just said ‘Your account has been deactivated.’ as if they aren’t responding to the appeal but just deactivating from the start again.

See photo for email received:

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Screenshot 2021-03-04 at 09.03.05.png1170×660 92.7 KB

Im so confused because they said they haven’t received new information but I submitted the whole new PoA that they took ages to respond and then fully ignored.

Any help?!

Thanks

#26

You needed the retraction notice from the IP rights holder - Amazon wont re-instate your account without that.

#27

The rights owner is requesting me to ‘make up their losses’ in order to get a retraction notice. Any idea how i go about doing this?

#28

Out of interest, have they indicated exactly what they believe their losses are and if so, would that figure be correct in your view?

And this bit was a huge mistake. Amazon will take the view that you never learnt from your first mistake

#29

They haven’t specified any value for their losses. I am happy to pay them the profits we made on their products as to be honest we only sold 27 units on their brand.

However i am unsure how to approach this as I would want to ensure I get the retraction before paying them. Also I am unsure how to get them to believe me on the value of their losses?

Any ideas?

#30

My initial thoughts are, that I would tread very carefully entering into an agreement about recovery of lost sales. You say you only sold 27, so I assume that would be their baseline. With only 27 sales, unless they have a huge profit margin, I would have thought they would just make a decision yes or no, with regards to the retraction statement without making you pay.
Can you approach them again and see if their stance has changed. You could do with a retraction

Edit
Is this UK Company?

#31

I wouldn’t pay them for a retraction notice.

#32

My thoughts on your POA (bit’s where I’ve suggested chnages have been bolded)

Greater detail on the root cause of infringement:

  • I violated Amazon’s intellectual property policies through listing items owned by a third party rights owner, without first gaining their permission to do so.
    *** I wrongly assumed that, as I had bought stock from the third party, they had given their tacit approval for me to sell it.**
  • I did not fully read and understand Amazon’s policies regarding Intellectual Property.
    *** I had previously received intellectual property listing violations on other ASINs. Despite resolving these, I failed to check if other ASINs in my inventory also violated the policy.**
    *** This happened because I prioritised shipping orders (200+) over checking my inventory as I was concerned about receiving a defect for late shipment.**
  • I had too many listings on my account which meant I could not give each of them the time required to review.
    *** I failed to respond to the emails from Amazon in a timely manner as I had too many listings in my inventory and the workload had become unmanageable for an inexperienced seller without any proper systems in place.**

Greater detail on the actions I have taken to resolve the complaint and how my account is now compliant with Amazon policies:

  • I have shipped all orders that were made prior to receiving the complaints.
  • I have fully closed and deleted all of my listings that were in violation of the intellectual property policies.
  • I have now reviewed my entire inventory and will only list branded products where I have permission to do so from the rights owner.
    *** I have reduced the number of ASINs in my inventory to a more manageable level.**
  • I have contacted the rights owner and apologised for my misunderstanding and policy violation. I have informed them that all listings have been removed and will not be listed again on my Amazon account.

Greater detail on the steps I have taken to prevent infringement going forward and to ensure my account remains compliant with Amazon policy:

  • I have reviewed the Amazon Intellectual Property policy and ensured I fully understand it, which I accessed here: https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/external/201361070
  • I have used the Amazon Seller University to understand how to list products in a compliant manner.
  • I have created a checklist process for all new product listings which will ensure that I will always contact rights owners and suppliers to gain their permission to list their products on Amazon before I add it to my inventory.
  • I now only source my inventory from authorised manufacturers and outlets.
  • I now regularly check Amazon’s policies and Seller University to keep up to date and ensure my account remains compliant.
#33

Sorry, the bolding didn’t work for some reason, look for the bits with 3 asterisks!

#34

I thought I read that bit, and then couldn’t find it again when I was commenting on paying for the retraction notice

OP, so you bought these from the company that are now asking you to pay for their lost sales?

#35

Yes we bought all of these products from this company who knew we were re-selling them, but there was just confusion over whether we could use Amazon as a selling channel or not - now they are asking for our profits on these products.

#36

Hi everyone - this case is still ongoing! :frowning:

The latest PoA submitted and rejected a few days ago was:

Root Cause:

I violated Amazon’s Trademark Infringement policy by listing items owned by a third-party rights owner and used their brand name, without first gaining their permission to do so. These items were owned by the brand, FITTOO. The ASINs that were reported were: B0822D79V9, B07H3MCW17, B07H3N27YX, B07L8QKQZ9, B07L8STNSC, B0822D4XTW, B0822CLCQX, B087C3NNYH, B07H99XYRC, B07L8RY6NX.

All of these ASINs were FITTOO branded Women’s Leggings in a variation of colours. I purchased the FITTOO Leggings from a wholesale seller and then listed each colour leggings under a FITTOO product listing without being authorised to do so by the Trademark owner.

This happened because I did not fully read and understand Amazon’s Intellectual Property policies and I thought that because the leggings were FITTOO branded, that I could continue to sell them as FITTOO leggings without first getting permission to do so. I also did not check to see if FITTOO brand had a Trademark or any intellectual property against it.

Despite receiving numerous violations and emails from Amazon, I failed to respond and address these issues in a timely and professional manner. This was because I was currently prioritising 200+ orders that needed to be shipped and did not have sufficient time by myself to respond to the Amazon claims. I now understand that this is not acceptable and I should have acquired assistance through a new colleague, rather than trying to run the entire Seller Account by myself.

The actions I have taken to resolve the issue:

  • I have shipped all orders that were made prior to receiving the complaints.
  • I have fully closed and deleted all of my listings that were in violation of the intellectual property policies.
  • I have reviewed my entire inventory and will only list branded products where I have permission to do so from the rights owner.
  • I will only list a select few products that I can continuously review to ensure I always have time to respond and act on Amazon’s communications.
  • I have contacted the rights owner and apologised for my misunderstanding and policy violation. I have informed them that all listings have been removed and will not be listed again on my Amazon account.

The steps I have taken to prevent the issue going forward:

  • I have reviewed the Amazon Intellectual Property policy, specifically regarding Trademark Infringement and ensured I fully understand it, which I accessed here: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/U5SQCEKADDAQRLZ?ref=ss_ahd_pp_intel_prop
  • I have used the Amazon Seller University to understand how to list products in a compliant manner.
  • I have created a checklist process for all new product listings which has a specific step to ensure that I will always contact rights owners and suppliers to gain their permission to list their products on Amazon before I add it to my inventory.
  • I have also sourced a legal assistant to assist with me ensuring that I legally obtain any necessary brand permissions in the future, as well as supporting me with any Amazon communication which means I can respond in a timely manner.
  • I only source my inventory from authorised manufacturers and outlets.
  • I regularly check Amazon’s policies and Seller University to keep up to date and ensure my account remains compliant.

I spoke to Amazon Account Health team on the phone yesterday and they advised me to include the below:

  • Future Preventative steps needs more detail:
  • Sourcing process going forward - write steps
  • Reference trademark & authenticity - mention sourcing from supplier, how will you choose supplier, what documents will you check
  • Quality check processing to avoid product authenticity complaints
  • Listing process in detail - how will you check trademark
  • What is your understanding of the trademark policy - what do you understand, how will you implement this into your business
  • Any suppliers in mind already? who is the rights owner, give details of new supplier if you have it
  • What will be your future inventory ?

^^^ Do you guys think the above is all necessary? I feel like im being sent on a wild goose chase with Amazon here. I was always told to keep the PoA short and sweet and now they want a detailed process for how I will source products and how i will list them etc? Should i include these as attachments rather than in the PoA text?

Also the last part about future inventory and future suppliers - I have no current plan for my next steps yet as im just focused on getting my account reactivated so I have no new supplier to quote etc. Is this ok?

As always any help is appreciated!

#37

to @Jessica

I notice that you have closed the duplicate thread on this issue. I was unable to see this original thread at all on the shortcut I use to the boards which is sell on Amazon, all, latest

I have no views at all on the issue but it seems to me entirely reasonable for any poster who is trying to get interest or support in their issue to raise it again perhaps on a more immediately visible part of the boards. Quite frankly I see no reason at all for closing duplicate threads. There must be something genuinely useful that the board moderators could do instead.

#38

They waste the time of sellers who (voluntarily) attempt to help with advice, only to find that the problem has already appeared elsewhere, and usually already dealt with. Sometimes the same problem comes up 3 or 4 times from the same person, clogging up the forum

#39

It’s quite easy to skip, read, or not read, . We’re all grown-ups