PoA for IP violations keeps getting rejected & account is deactivated. Please help!
Hi all.
I am a relatively new seller on Amazon and was listing numerous ASINs without permission from the rights owner. In truth, i was purchasing them from the rights owner themselves with the intention of selling on - which the rights owner knew about. I assumed approval for selling via Amazon and now I have realised they don’t allow that. My account is now deactivated and i have removed all listings and submitted a PoA numerous times but it keeps bouncing back with the ‘greater detail required’ email.
Please can you review the below? I am trying to keep it short, factual etc but I have no idea why they won’t accept it?
PLAN OF ACTION:
Dear Amazon Seller Performance Team,
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to appeal my Amazon account’s recent deactivation due to intellectual property violations.
I understand these violations are taken seriously by Amazon and through my Plan of Action below I will explain how I have resolved these violations and how I will ensure it will not happen again.
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.
- Due to being a new seller, I did not check to see if the brand was owned as intellectual property before listing it.
- I had previously received intellectual property listing violations on other ASINs and despite resolving those, I did not take time to review my entire inventory to check if I was violating the policies on other listings.
- Despite receiving numerous violations and emails from Amazon, I failed to respond and address these issues in a timely and professional manner.
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 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.
- 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 will only source my inventory from authorised manufacturers and outlets.
- I will regularly check Amazon’s policies and Seller University to keep up to date and ensure my account remains compliant.
I hope that my above explanation has addressed the violations against my account and I thank you again for allowing me the chance to appeal my deactivation.
Kind Regards,
Really appreciate any help anyone can give!
Thanks 
43 replies
Seller_64jziShTiTjOq
First of all, take out the first, second and last sentences. They have been copied and pasted from umpteen other POAs that Amazon have seen so often they probably don’t bother reading past the first few words, as they know you didn’t write them yourself and therefore may not have given any real thought to your problem
Root cause. You have written what happened. Amazon already know that. They want to know why it happened. Why did you not check? Why did you not review your other listings, especially after receiving previous warnings? and so on
Actions taken. Looks reasonably good. Need to say “now only list branded products…”, not will. Bit about contacting rights owner may be unnecessary as it’s outside the Amazon setting, so Amazon won’t care
Future actions. Provide a link to the IP policy, which at least shows you found it!
Seller_64jziShTiTjOq
I should have said that your format is good - the right headings and simple, concise but specific points, instead of the lengthy waffle that other sellers mistakenly put in their POAs!
Seller_ejwc84JNL5Uk6
*** I had previously received intellectual property listing violations on other ASINs and despite resolving those, I did not take time to review my entire inventory to check if I was violating the policies on other listings.**
*** Despite receiving numerous violations and emails from Amazon, I failed to respond and address these issues in a timely and professional manner.**
I think the plan is good and succinct - but the two points above need addressing as you’ve had previous complaints and now you’ve been ignoring Amazon warnings again.
Seller_rpMcmej3dLPRz
Hi all.
Thanks so much for your responses!
My previous PoAs kept bouncing back almost immediately so I think @olderithian was correct that they weren’t probably reading them due to the generic beginning & end. I’ve removed those now so hoping they’ll read my next submission.
See below for changes:
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 did not check to see if the brand was owned as intellectual property before listing it because I did not fully read and understand Amazon’s policies.
- I had previously received intellectual property listing violations on other ASINs and despite resolving those, I did not take time to review my entire inventory to check if I was violating the policies on other listings.
- This was because I prioritised shipping 200+ orders which had been placed prior to the violations and I did not put in the time to review my inventory - despite receiving warnings. At this point, I had too many listings on my account which meant I could not give each of them the time required to review.
- Despite receiving numerous violations and emails from Amazon, I failed to respond and address these issues in a timely and professional manner.
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 now 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.
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.
I’ll let you know what they respond!
Seller_LGcFRUwJdg45L
Hello @EHG_Supplies,
From your post I understand that your account has been taken down for infringement and you need recommendation to activate your account.
The action plan which you have provided in the comment looks good, kindly wait for the concerned team reply to get further understanding.
Do let us know if you need any further assistance on this.
Good Luck,
Dhoni
Seller_rpMcmej3dLPRz
Hi @Dhoni_Amazon and @olderithian - I haven’t received any response from Amazon yet - which Im hoping is good news.
However, i checked my appeal in my account and it has the option to submit additional information… this usually only comes up when Amazon has rejected the appeal and wants more info but I have checked my emails and my performance communications in my Amazon account and there has been no response from Amazon.
Do I keep waiting or do i need to submit more additional info?
Photo below of what it looks like in my appeal area. As you can see the option to give more info is there, but there is no response from Amazon.
Seller_rpMcmej3dLPRz
Thanks all. I will review the wording for my next submission - if I need to do one.
I have contacted the AAH specialist team and they have informed me that the appeal is still under review and not to submit anything else yet.
Will keep you posted!
Seller_rpMcmej3dLPRz
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!
Seller_7VbclcPFFRTnc
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 ?
