Brand selling unbranded products
Hello,
I’ve sourced a supply of unbranded products to sell on Amazon. When doing research, i’ve found the same products being sold under a branded listing on Amazon.
The branded product listing uses the same images as shown on my suppliers website.
What rights do i have to sell on the branded product listing for a unbranded product and what evidence do i need to provide to Amazon if a issue arrises?
I’ve had a run in with the seller selling on the branded listing on a different branded page before, they were right to raise an issue with me as I didn’t have the right to sell on the particular branded page due to slight differences in the product i was selling but on this occasion it looks like my supplier provides the exact same product.
Another occasion, i had Received an Intellectual Property Complaint for another incident where i was selling an unbranded product on a branded listing even though the product was supposed to be unbranded, i provided evidence to say that i was able to supply the product by sharing a screenshot of my suppliers website, and i mentioned if the brand owner was able to provide evidence that they were suppling the product in their branded packaging, i ended up winning that case but i wasn’t told why.
I’m happy to hear advice for this situation,
Thanks,
29 replies
Seller_7VbclcPFFRTnc
Do not list on that listing
Unfortunately it happens on here all the time , hence the catalogue is full of duplicate products but, its the way amazon seem to push it for brand registry . Several people buy the same item and ‘rebrand’ it as their own
Does the product come with its own barcode or will you have to buy your own
Seller_M00gWu6PyeJf5
Unfortunately this is an ever increasing problem nowadays. Chinese manufacturers/ suppliers supplying their products to sellers and then listing the same goods on Amazon themselves, often at a lower price than you paid for them. It is only going to get worse. Depending on the type of products you sell, try creating a product that is unique by creating a listing that includes that product plus another product to go with it. Let’s assume that you want to sell a ‘Widget’ yet everyone else is selling the same generic Widget, all with their own Brand names on them. Why not include a ‘Giggle Pin’ with your ‘Widget’? Even better if you can source a cheap ‘Giggle Pin’ from the U.K. Then add your own GTIN. to it under your brand name, (assuming you are fully Brand Registered). You have then created a unique product that is very hard and probably not worth any one else’s time to copy. Creating ‘Bundles’ is a model we use for many of our products.
P.S. I’m not suggesting you try sourcing Widgets or Giggle Pins. 
Seller_AC6R8q0fSB4tN
If the brand owner has permission from the manufacturer to sell through their own brand then you would be infringing on that brand. I believe this can result in suspension or possibly worse but many take their chances for as long as they can get away with it.
Seller_f722EaPrmXDhn
I had this exact same problem. However, talking from experience it is totally not worth listing your product under this branded product. Even though Amazon should request details from the other seller, they won’t.
We were selling a product that matched the EAN exactly - therefore I knew they were the same products. The product came in a white box, no branding, I checked the owner of the EAN and they were not the other seller. I was doing really really well with this product (I did not undercut, I went in at the same price), to be fair it was just excess stock so I wasn’t looking to buy anymore but we did have a lot of it.
I decided to send in a full pallet. The day it hit Amazon I got a very nasty email from the other company threatening to take the company down because we were wrongfully on “their” listing. They were not brand registered but they did get their “legal” team to write the email.
I immediately went to Amazon and told them that they are using the barcode of the manufacturer, therefore it is not their product. Nothing came of this, so I immediately closed my listing and requested my goods back. A costly exercise, not to mention how stressed I was about the email.
This was a foolish mistake on my behalf. You learn from your mistakes though!
I know that Amazon becomes flooded with the same items, with different branding, however what other options do you have when someone uses the original barcode and makes it out to be their own? This is just a tactic to try to stop competition. Instead it means the product is listed a billion times - I chose to move to the 4 colour company to sell my leftover stock rather than go through the hassle of having to set up my own listing and no doubt require authorisation from Amazon to sell it.
If you have a good advertising strategy, good customer service and your product is good you never know… you might find you do better than them ;-p
Seller_zUYafikN1gby2
My first ever forum post or reply - so apologies If I’m doing this wrong! - But I/we have had such a bad experience I felt I needed to warn “all” of listing on a “Branded” listing. - I’m keeping this brief and trying to keep it short - so will just cover the “important” bits. (Even though it’s still quite long!)
We were on a “generic” listing along with about 7-8 other sellers, it’s been on amazon for about 3 years.
about 6 months ago - someone “branded” it - which we did not notice had changed from generic to “Brand xxxx”
We got a violation notice of selling a “counterfeit & fake” product - which of course we appealed
Next our account was suspended - so we had to do a POA - we thought no problem, we buy this from a reputable wholesaler & it’s a UK manufactured product.
It was rejected! - we then spent the next 3 weeks contacting the distributor & ultimately the manufacturer for letters of authorisation and at the same time - we bought the so called “branded” product for ourselves. - Note we were one of at least 7 people that had contacted the wholesaler regards this product for this problem - so clearly the new brand owner had reported everyone immediately!
When the product arrived it wasn’t branded in any way, and in fact arrived in pretty poor condition compared to how we packed them.
We took lots of photos of the “branded” item and “our” product & submitted along with the letters of authorisation from both the wholesaler & even a letter from the UK manufacturer on their headed paper signed by the owner/Managing Director himself naming us in the letter as fully approved to sell their product & also confirming they had given no such “branding” permission to any company for their product
ALL REJECTED BY AMAZON & the suspension and violation remained!!!
we then spent another 3 weeks approx. writing 7 POA’s - yes 7 before one was accepted removing our suspension - we only got our account back by basically admitting we were wrong!! - despite all the evidence we provided. - we were suspended for about 7-8 weeks while we re-wrote all the appeals etc & it cost us thousands in lost sales!
Massive stress, massive wasted time & effort & money by us, the wholesaler & the manufacturer & none of it made any difference at all to Amazon unless we admitted full fault to Amazon.- ridiculous!
The violation is still on our account now - it winds me up every day!! & it will hopefully drop off in about 1 month.
So - lessons to all - Do Not List on a “Branded” Listing - or face the potentially same fate as us & keep an eye on any generic listings you are on for potentially someone taking it over as theirs!
DO NOT LIST ON A BRANDED LISTING - unless you want to do the above!!
