Suspension Appeal Letter

We are looking for someone to please review our POA to appeal our suspension of our USA account.

We have had an appeal written for us by a suspension company, which has failed to be accepted 3 times, and we believe it may not be good enough, so have drafted our own and would like some input please.

I have read a lot of good advice from Kika and others so thank you so far.

Some background - We sell phone cases, printed with various artwork / pictures.

Email from Amazon telling us what they want

Hello,

Thank you for your message. We cannot accept your appeal because it does not address the report we received from the rights owner. Please provide the following information so we can process your appeal:

– Greater detail on the root cause(s) of the infringement.
– Greater detail on the steps you have taken to prevent infringement going forward.
– Greater detail on why you believe an error has occurred.

Where do I send this information?
Send this information to notice-dispute@amazon.com.

What happens if I do not send the requested information?
If we do not receive the requested information within 17 days of the original suspension notification, your account will remain deactivated.

This is the appeal letter written for us. We want to trust this person knows more than us, but it seems very basic?

Dear Amazon,

Thank you for your reply regarding copyright infringement.

Upon further investigation, it appears the image on the cases of the 4 ASINs you mention may infringe copyright, using designs or images without the creator’s permission.

We hired a freelancer to create designs for us to use on our products. However, it appears that they instead sourced images from another Amazon seller and sold them to us under false pretences.

To resolve the issue:

• I have deleted the items from our inventory and will not sell them again
• I have conducted checks on all work from that freelancer and cannot find any other matching artwork, this seems to be the only occurrence
• I have contacted the freelancer to get more information, but have been unable to get a reply

To prevent this in future:

• I will use Google’s image search tool which allows you to upload an image and search for others that match, this should show if the item is original
• I will ensure freelancers and staff sign contracts, holding them liable for this behaviour and confirming they are the original creator of the intellectual property
• I will conduct background checks and request details of previous satisfied clients to prevent misleading behaviour

I’m no longer causing any intellectual property infringement and am therefore fully compliant with your policies. I’m very sorry this occurred, it will not happen again.

Please may I be reinstated?
Kind regards,

Our appeal we wrote, which we think may be better, but we tend to add a lot more information which may not be the correct method in dealing with Amazon

Dear Amazon

Thank you for your reply regarding copyright infringement and allowing us the opportunity to appeal our seller account suspension.

We recognise and fully understand the mistakes which lead to our suspension, and understand Amazon takes failure to comply with Intellectual property rights of brands very seriously, and we hope our plan of action shows we will prevent this in the future.

Root Cause of Infringement:

• We listed products without making detailed checks to ensure the products did not infringe on any other trademarks or intellectual property. The ASINS which suffered these complaints contain artwork which may infringe copyright, using designs or images without the creator’s permission.

Greater detail on why this error occured:

• The artwork in these listings, was outsourced to a freelance artist. We failed to do adequate checks to ensure the artwork did not infringe any intellectual property or trademark.

To resolve the issue:

• We have deleted all the affected items from our inventory and will not list or relist any products that resulted in this intellectual property infringement.

• We have checked our entire inventory and can confirm there are no other products which infringe on intellectual property of other people.

To prevent infringement going forward:

• We will not list or relist any products that may result in intellectual property infringements.

• I personally as Managing Director will fully check and approve any new products/listings to be created. If there are any incorrect details we will not list until everything has been corrected and thoroughly checked, thereby ensuring we are not open to any more future complaints.

• We have employed our own graphic designer for all future products we create who has been fully trained on the details of intellectual property and copyright law. We will no longer outsource artwork to untrusted third party freelancers.

• We have carefully reviewed all Amazon’s intellectual property policies, specifically section one, two and three of Amazon’s copyright policies., I fully understand these requirements to maintain my seller account in accordance with Amazon’s policy.

• We will regularly read and re-read the Amazon guidelines and policies to make sure that we are not in violation of any of Amazon selling rules and policies. Also, we will monitor changes in the policies or any applicable laws, which could affect us or our account and react proactively.

• As per Amazon’s intellectual property policies I have made contact with a lawyer to help ensure that our business has the right procedures in place to prevent intellectual property infringement again in the future.

At xxxxxxxx Limited we always adhere to the highest possible standards that Amazon expects.

I hope that this Plan of Action has demonstrated to you enough reason to reinstate our account.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,