Account suspended due to intellectual property/ counterfeit complaint
Hello,
I am in need of some help, a few days ago my mom received a suspension notice for her account, she has gone into melt down as she has run this account for nearly 10 years, this is her only income, she is 62 and not very computer literate, so I am trying to help her but don’t actually sell on amazon myself so am not sure how best to proceed. She has had no previous indication or complaint regarding this item, so am a bit perplexed as to what exactly the issue even is.
I have made one attempt at a plan of action response to amazon, however today amazon have come back with an ‘insufficient information’ email, I really don’t want to screw the new reply up and there is a lot riding on this for my mom, so any advice would be gratefully received. I shall paste all correspondence to date below…
FIRST NOTIFICATION OF DEACTIVATION FROM AMAZON…
We attempted to reach you by phone to discuss the status of your account.
As a result of these issues, your Amazon selling account has been temporarily deactivated. Your listings have been removed. Funds will not be transferred to you but will stay in your account while we work with you to address this issue. Please ship any open orders to avoid further impact to your account.
Why is this happening?
Amazon does not allow listings that violate the intellectual property rights of brands or rights owners. To learn more, please review Amazon’s Intellectual Property Policy (https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/201361070).
Amazon previously alerted you of these issues by emailing the warnings listed below:
Notice one:
ASIN: B07WSWYHSH
Title:One Night Ultimate Werewolf
Complaint Type: Confirmed counterfeit
How do I reactivate my account?
To reactivate your account, please send a plan of action that explains:
– Proof of authenticity (e.g., invoice, Order ID, letter of authorization, licensing agreement or court order) for infringing listings
– The steps you have taken to ensure that you are no longer infringing and will not infringe in the future
– Other relevant information
– Supporting details should you believe the notice was submitted in error or the notices are incorrect
How do I send this information?
Submit this information at (https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/cu/contact-us).
We’re here to help
The Account Health Support team is available 7 days a week to address your concerns in detail. {Moderator Edit: Link removed} Additionally, please find assistance creating a plan of action at (https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/201623610). You can see your balance and settlement information in the Payments section of Seller Central. If you have questions about those, please write to payments-funds@amazon.co.uk.
You can view your account performance at (https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/performance/dashboard?ref=ah_em_op) or select Account Health on the home screen of the Amazon Seller app on your iOS or Android device. Your Account Health shows how well your account is performing against the performance metrics and policies required to sell on Amazon.
– Download iOS App at (https://itunes.apple.com/na/app/amazon-seller/id794141485)
– Download Android App at (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.amazon.sellermobile.android&hl)
We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Seller Performance Team
MY PLAN OF ACTION APPEAL RESPONSE
What was the root cause that led to the issue?
My amazon business is built upon selling a variety of items procured from second hand outlets and charity shops, I sell mostly second hand books, DVD’s and jigsaws. The items in question were games (ASIN: B07WSWYHSH Title:One Night Ultimate Werewolf) these were purchased from a charity shop called New Life, based in Cannock. I have a receipt for the purchase but it is not itemised and is just a basic till receipt, so I don’t think it will satisfy your criteria for an invoice. I did not realise that I could be infringing on copy write by selling second hand items until I received your email letting me know that there was an issue. I can only apologise profusely for this error on my part.
• What actions will you take to resolve the issue?
As soon as I received the email from you letting me know that there was a problem with my listing I immediately deleted all products with this title and also any others I have listed by this manufacturer. I have now donated these items to charity so that hopefully some good will come from this error.
I am now in the process of educating myself further on Amazons policies on copy write infringement and seller restrictions, as this was a genuine mistake arising from lack of knowledge on my part… I had no idea that I was breaking any rules. Please know that I would never knowingly jeopardised my business relationship with amazon, as I value and appreciate the privilege of being an amazon seller.
Finally, I have also taken it upon myself to send an email to the manufacturer of the item (Bezier Games), explaining the situstion and expressing my regret for infringing their copy write.
• What steps will you take to prevent future issues?
While speaking to your seller performance advisor earlier, he alerted me to the ‘seller performance’ page, which I was completely unaware of until now, obviously this will be a helpful tool for me avoiding any further issues like this. I will be checking my seller performance page regularly from now on and actioning any issues asap.
I will also read all of amazons policies on copy write infringement and seller restrictions, as I feel I need to educate myself on these topics further. It was clearly my lack of understanding that has lead to this issue occurring.
Finally, I will be very cautious from now on about what products I list, I will conduct a thorough search before listing anything new to try and ascertain if there are any licensing issues that I need to be aware of.
I hope that you will see fit to reinstate my account and be assured that I will do everything in my power to adhere to amazons policies in future. Also if there are any other eduction programmes, courses or literature that you can provide me with details of, I would be very happy to recieve this information.
Yours Sincerely,
AMAZONS LATEST RESPONSE
Hello,
The Seller Performance team does not provide support by telephone. Please address any queries regarding the review process in writing via the online contact form:
Help > Make Money at Amazon.co.uk > Amazon.co.uk Marketplace > Selling at Amazon.co.uk Marketplace > click Email on the right. Please choose “Respond to Seller Performance” as your subject option.
Thank you for submitting your plan of action. We reviewed your appeal and determined that it is missing the following information. Please include the missing information listed below in your plan of action:
– Proof of product authenticity (e.g., invoice, Order ID, licensing agreement, letter of authorization). It must clearly prove that your products do not infringe any intellectual property rights.
– Greater detail on the root cause(s) of the infringement.
– Greater detail on the actions you have taken to resolve COUNTERFEIT infringement issues.
– Greater detail on the steps you have taken to prevent infringement going forward.
– Greater detail on why you believe an error has occurred.
Has your account been deactivated in error?
If you believe there has been an error, please tell us why. Your explanation should include the following information:
– How your listing(s) have not violated the brand’s intellectual property.
Where do I send this information?
Please submit this information by clicking the Appeal button on Account Health (https://sellercentral-europe.amazon.com/performance/dashboard).
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.
ASIN: B07WSWYHSH
Title: One Night Ultimate Werewolf
Complaint ID: 5697437442
You can see your balance and settlement information in the Payments section of Seller Central. If you have questions about those, please send an email to payments-investigate@amazon.co.uk.
You can view your account performance (https://sellercentral-europe.amazon.com/performance/dashboard) or select Account Health on the home screen of the Amazon Seller app on your iOS or Android device. The Account Health dashboard shows how well your account is performing against the performance metrics and policies required to sell on Amazon.
– iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/amazon-Seller/id794141485
– Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.amazon.sellermobile.android&hl…
11 replies
Seller_hC0hNVDuILaKO
Can you just clarify, were you listing these charity shop items as “used” or as “new”?
Seller_CgeB2X0Aq63je
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply, this is very helpful!
Seller_CgeB2X0Aq63je
Do you think it would be helpful to state that she won’t sell any items procured in this way as ‘new’ moving forwards and will remove all existing ‘New’ listings from her inventory… so will effectively be reverting to being a second hand bookshop which is what she set it up as in the first place? Thanks again for your help, it is so appreciated!
Seller_5CaidGS335rcI
Hi @ The_Bookstop ,
The suggestions made by @Adrian are quite good. To appeal for the intellectual property right issue on the account, it is important to understand the source of the issue first and then prepare the follow up parts of the plan of action.
You have mentioned your source of procurement is second hand outlets, in such scenarios it is a good practice to check at your supply source if they are authorized to deal in the products. Also, does the authorization gives away the rights of re-sale?
Going forward, we would recommend to always do due diligence of your source of supply for authorization before signing up for business.
After acknowledging the cause of the problem on the account, the second part would require mentioning the corrective steps taken to resolve the issues on the account.
The points mentioned in the plan of action submitted is in the correct direction, however lacks details. As you have mentioned,
Ensure you are deleting the items that are infringing in nature rather than making the stock zero also check all the listings on offer to ensure there are no potential infringing listings that can be a cause of future intellectual property rights issue.
How are you educating yourself?
What are the help pages you are visiting?
Mentioning the links of the educational pages would help in understanding your reference points.
For future preventive steps, you will have to mention the proactive steps you will take to ensure the issue is not recurring in nature. We would recommend ,consider preparing a checklist to ensure that any listing created at your end is in compliance with Amazon’s intellectual property rights policies and your source of inventory is checked before association.
The appeal needs to be as detailed as possible by highlighting ask of the plan of action and proof of authenticity. In case you do not have proof of authenticity or you have challenges in presenting the same, please acknowledge it in your appeal.
Hope this was a helpful read,
Good Luck,
Fidak
Seller_CgeB2X0Aq63je
Thank you @Fidak_Amazon
I am currently in the process of deleting the inventory, as I feel it is best to start again if we are ever reinstated so that we can be certain all future products are correctly listed and sourced… is there a way to delete all listings at once? Currently I am only able to 250 at once.
Also, as I haven’t been able to speak to anyone from Amazon in person about this and only have the information in the email above, I am not totally clear if this is actually a counterfeit item complaint or an intellectual property infringement complaint. I haven’t had any information about who has complained, which I believe I would have if it was an IP complaint from a manufacturer for example. How do I find this out without being able to speak to anyone?
Finally if I revert to only selling second hand books, would I avoid this risk of similar future issues of this nature? My research so far seems to suggest that second hand books should be exempt from Intellectual property claims, would you concur with this?
Thanks for your assistance!
Seller_z5IUu1x2Tdxkw
Hi I am having exactly the trouble - has there been any further process. It was a dvd I sold as new but it contained live concert footage that was under license. The rights owner was very kind in his emails and retracted the complaint but amazon are still sending me the same generic email you have been getting
Seller_z5IUu1x2Tdxkw
it would help if they didnt take days to reply and clearly they use a computer generated email. bloody awful service on such serious matters
