Brand Owner creating False Policy Violations : Help please
We have been hit by two Policy Violations by the same brand owner. The products we had on sale were purchased from one of their authorised distributors in the EU. That distributor, under the terms of their distribution agreement with the brand owner is legally allowed to sell these products to UK retailers.
We have been selling their products for some time and, to clear out slow moving stock before our financial year end, we discounted some of this brand’s products. They raised multiple “policy violations” because they “didn’t like what we were doing with their products” (i.e. reducing their retail price). We have confirmation from the brand distributor from which we bought the products that the brand owner did, on two separate occasions, complain that we were undercutting their other retailers.
We talked to the brand owner and explained that this action was illegal under the laws relating to the Competition and Markets Authority (in the UK) which prohibits any manufacturer / wholesaler / supplier from mandating any specific retail price or setting minimum retail prices. They cancelled the Policy Violations.
However, they have now slapped on two new Policy Violations based on “Parallel Imports”. On its face, this is absolute rubbish but when we asked them to justify their allegations, they replied that since they were the ‘Brand Owner’, they can BAN anyone they don’t like from selling their products on Amazon.
We guess that we are not the first retailer to be treated like this and would welcome any advice as to how best to handle this situation.
19 replies
Seller_1zZOhA76X96Ak
Hello @MarigoldGifts,
This is Vans from Amazon to help you with your concerns.
Kindly provide us with a copy/paste of the performance notification you received regarding the ASIN to have a clear understanding on the reason behind the Listing and future steps.
The forums community and I are here to support you.
Kind Regards,
Vans
Seller_W5tEzuTVM8fJo
Thanks for your reply.
We received five or six policy violation warnings for different ASINs, all from the same brand owner … all alleging “Parallel Imports"
By working with the Distributor from which we bought the branded products and through their discussions with the brand owner (Letistitch Ltd), we have managed to get the brand owner to remove all the policy violations …. But they have not given any undertaking that they will not do the same or similar action again.
In an email that we received from the brand owner, they said the following :-
“Please make sure that if you will try to list any of our kits on Amazon again, we will immediately report a brand violation. And your listing will be removed by Amazon. As a registered trademark in the United Kingdom, we can take legal action against anyone who uses our brand without our permission.”
We believe this to be illegal intimidation and should not be allowed by Amazon.
This is one of the policy violation warnings we received :-
Hello
We removed some of your listings because we received a report from a rights owner that they may infringe the rights owner’s intellectual property rights. The rights owner communication about the alleged infringement and the listings we removed are below.
Why did this happen?
We received a report from a rights owner alleging that one or more of your listings have been imported into the UK without consent. Rights owners may use their intellectual property rights to prevent distribution into the UK of genuine branded goods sourced outside of the UK or the EEA. To maintain a trusted marketplace, we take immediate action to address rights owner complaints regarding infringements of their intellectual property rights.
We’re here to help.
If you need help understanding why your listings may infringe the intellectual property rights of others, please search for “Intellectual Property Policy” in Seller Central Help (https://sellercentral-europe.amazon.com/gp/help/external/201361070).
How do I reactivate my listing?
You are required to provide written evidence that the product you are selling for the ASIN(s) have been authorized for import into the UK (or the EEA) with the rights owner’s consent.
Please include one of the following:
– Copies of invoices from your UK-(or EEA-)based supplier issued in the last 180 days. These should reflect your sales volume during that time and contain your supplier’s contact information, including name, phone number, address, and website.
– Copies of product importation documents (e.g., customs clearance documents, commercial invoices) issued to you or your supplier in the last 180 days. These should reflect your sales volume during that time and contain your supplier’s contact information, including name, phone number, address, and website.
– A written authorization letter from the rights owner, issued to you.
– A written authorization letter from the rights owner, issued to your supplier. In this case, also include copies of invoices or receipts from your supplier issued in the last 180 days. These should reflect your sales volume during that time and contain your supplier’s contact information, including name, phone number, address, and website.
You can remove pricing information, but please ensure the rest of the document is visible. External links of receipts are not accepted. For security reasons, we only accept attachments in the following file formats: .jpeg, .jpg, .pjpeg, .gif, .png, .tiff, .pdf, .txt, .csv. Sending forged or falsified documents will result in the removal of your Amazon selling privileges.
How do I submit this information?
Go to Received Intellectual Property Complaints under the Product Policy Compliance section in account health (https://sellercentral-europe.amazon.com/performance/dashboard?ref=ah_em_mpa). Locate the deactivation record for this product listing. Click on the Appeal button next to the listing deactivation record to submit information necessary to reactivate your listing.
Have your listings been removed in error?
If you have never sold or listed the product, please reach out to us and tell us.
If you think that the rights owner has made an error in sending the notice, please reach out to the rights owner and ask for a retraction of the notice. To retract the complaint, the rights owner must send the retraction to us at notice-retraction@amazon.co.uk or use the retraction function in Brand Registry.
These are the rights owner’s contact details:
– Anastasia Luca-Brasoveanu
– letistitch@gmail.com
We can only accept retractions if the rights owner clearly states that they made an error. For any other reason, please explain to us why you were warned in error so that we can investigate the case.
Rights owner communication The product is authentic but sold in the UK without the rights owner’s consent
: Infringement type: Parallel Import
ASIN: B09V5VN679
B09V6HHSV3
Complaint ID: 7701253772
Seller_W5tEzuTVM8fJo
Thanks Roger, … much appreciated.
Frankly I’m surprised that the Amazon rules allow a brand owner to effectively ban a retailer from selling their products which have been purchased from one of their own distributors.
The root cause of this is that Letistitch objected to us selling their products at a discounted rate (just to clear out slow moving stock prior to our financial year end). So this is all about controlling the price at which their product is retailed - something which I understood to be illegal under the laws operated through the Competition and Markets Authority.
We have involved the distributor in this dispute so they are entirely well informed as to the Letistitch actions - I understand that they (the distributor) have been threatened by Letistitch to stop them from selling any of their products to UK retailers.
I agree with your sentiment that we do not want to trade in their products again and will dispose of the remaining stock one way or another.
I feel that it is very sad that with all of the world’s troubles, that a company should got out of its way to be so overtly aggressive in their actions to resolve a short-term problem. However, it certainly has shown the true character of the people running that company.
Thanks Again, Andrew.
Seller_W5tEzuTVM8fJo
Thanks … I’m sure that will come in handy for the next round of “discussion” !!
Seller_4MlYJvoHfdkDh
Legally you have every foot to stand on, as this is an open and shut case of unjustified threat of infringement, they have even admitted their motives to you in an email.
People don’t understand that companies can’t keep issuing take downs without actually proceeding with legal action. Other wise its as above an unjustifed ‘threat’. This was set in law a few years ago, it was ruled that take down claims cannot be used in place of litigation.
So tell them to proceed with legal action (which you would win) or you can get a solicitor to issue a counter unjustifed threat claim and you win anyway.
