Help With Restricted Products on EU Marketplaces

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Seller_smABMiyNCUJYY

Help With Restricted Products on EU Marketplaces

Hi

So I failed to close some listings on amazon.nl and my account has been deactivated. I found that there was some kind of glitch on their site which didn’t allow me to actually close them. They closed ok on all other international sites, just not on Amz.nl.

Anyway, my account has since been deactivated and am struggling with my plan of action on the basis as I don’t fully know which policy I have violated located in the below email which ‘The sale of unauthorised biocides and/or those that do not comply with the correct labelling requirements is not permitted on Amazon.nl’

Here is the first email I received

Hello from Amazon,

We are writing to let you know that the following detail pages have been removed from our catalog:

ASIN: B0849YHCQH
Title: Big Cat Spots and Stripes Spray Hand Sanitiser HAND13

The sale of unauthorised biocides and/or those that do not comply with the correct labelling requirements is not permitted on Amazon.nl.

Why is this happening?

We took this action because this product is not permitted for sale on Amazon.nl. It is your obligation to make sure the products you offer comply with all applicable laws, regulations, and Amazon’s policies.

I then proceeded to close these listings thinking they correctly closed, like I did on amz.it etc. Except I received a phone call and then this message

Dear

Thank you for speaking with us about your selling account.

As we discussed, you have listed items that are not permitted for sale on Amazon. Items listed for sale on Amazon must adhere to all applicable laws and regulations and Amazon’s policies. Here are some examples of products you have listed that violate Amazon policy:

ASIN: B0849YHCQH
Title: Big Cat Spots and Stripes Spray Hand Sanitiser HAND13

What’s next?
To continue selling on Amazon, you must submit a plan of action within 72 hours. A valid plan of action contains three parts:
– A detailed explanation of the root cause(s) of the violations
– Confirmation that you have closed or deleted all restricted product listings from your inventory
– The proactive steps you have taken to prevent any similar violations in the future

Here are a few things to consider as you create your plan:
– Policies: Carefully review Amazon’s Restricted Products policies in the Amazon Seller Central Help pages.
– Know Your Responsibilities: If you supply goods on Amazon, you are responsible for ensuring that your listings comply with all applicable laws and Amazon’s policies.
– Stay Informed: Laws, regulations and policies are subject to change, and for international sellers, differ from marketplace to marketplace, so audit your inventory for compliance on a regular basis. This particularly includes listings that are added using inventory feeds or uploaded using automated systems.

I have since sent 2 appeals which have both been rejected.

Dear Amazon

  1. Close or delete all restricted product listings from your inventory.

I can confirm that I have deleted all restricted product listings and have thoroughly checked all other inventory items to ensure they are not violating Amazons restricted product policy.

  1. Greater detail on the root causes of your restricted product violations, including the specific product type and policy violated.

The root cause for my violations was listing an alcohol based hand sanitiser ASIN B0849YHCQH which is not authorised for sale in the EU and does not fulfil the requirement of The Biocidal Products Regulation (EU) No 528/2012. The products labelling did not meet the criteria for it to be sold on amazon.nl marketplace. The products listed were only permitted for sale within the United Kingdom and I should have done my due diligence and prevented these from becoming available for sale. I completely understand that this is against Amazon policy.

  1. Greater detail on the steps you have taken to ensure that no restricted products are listed on your account in the future.

The steps I have taken is to educate myself further by reading through all of Amazons selling policies, specifically the restricted product policies and to ensure that I am always up to date with any new amendments. I will ensure that any future products prior to listing are thoroughly checked against amazon.nl restricted products policy and to ensure they are fully compliant before attempting to list. I will ensure that this does not happen again and no further restricted policies will be violated on my account.

Not very good I know.

My account was then deactivated and they have replied with

How do I reactivate my account?

To reactivate your selling account on Amazon.nl, please take the following steps:

  1. Close or delete all restricted product listings from your inventory.

You can find the listings in questions in the “Product Policy Compliance” section of Account Health at the following link:

https://sellercentral-europe.amazon.com/performance/dashboard?reftag=ah_em_rp

  1. Send us a thorough plan of action that describes:

– A detailed explanation of the root causes of the violations, including the specific product type and policy violated.

– The proactive steps you have taken to prevent any similar violations in the future.

Here are a few things to consider as you create your plan:

– Policies: Carefully review Amazon Restricted Products policies in the Amazon Seller Central Help pages.

– Know your responsibilities: If you supply goods on Amazon, you are responsible for ensuring that your listings comply with all laws and regulations and Amazon policies.

– Stay informed: Laws, regulations and policies are subject to change, and for international sellers, differ from country to country, so audit your inventory for compliance on a regular basis. This particularly includes listings that are added using inventory feeds or uploaded using automated systems.

I am writing a more detailed plan of action but where they have stated “A detailed explanation of the root causes of the violations, including the specific product type and policy violated.” This is the part I am struggling with if anyone could please point me in the right direction. I cannot seem to find out the reason the labelling is not compliant and which policy is violated.

Sorry for the long post and I really appreciate if you read this far. Will post my next POA once I have the policy violation correctly identified.

Edit: All the affected listings have since been deleted, it allowed me to delete the products, just not close them. This applies to all of my other inventory on amazon.nl, it just doesn’t close which is some kind of technical issue that they don’t seem to want to acknowledge.

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2 replies
Tags:ASIN, Compliance, Fees, Listings, Pricing, detail page
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2 replies
user profile
Seller_iB36o8NDMg9df

Hello @Jam638

Thanks for sharing the notifications which you have received from performance team and sending the appeals which you have already submitted. I understand that your amazon.nl account has been taken down for restricted product policy violations and you want recommendation from our end in reactivating the account.

First of all, Amazon takes restricted policy violations seriously. It’s a Seller’s responsibility to make sure that their account including all the listings are abide to different Amazon policies. The restricted products policy is separate for each market places. It is governed by the respective government authority of the marketplace a seller operates in.

Here, once I’ve checked the information given by you on the appeal, the future preventive steps are not strong and it’s like vague.

Below are some questions to help you to understand for preparing an appeal to get your selling privileges back, a plan of action must be in the following format:

1. Root cause(s):

  • Why did you receive the notification on this particular ASIN? How did you list the ASIN?

  • Was it listed by you or anyone else?

  • Did you gone through Amazon restricted products policy before listing your items?

  • If not, why you didn’t gone through the policy pages?

  • What are the points you are checking out once you listing any item?

2. Corrective measures:

  • When you have received the notification, what are the actions you have taken?
  • Did you deleted the ASIN completely or made it Inactive?

  • Did you gone through the policy pages to get a better understanding of this issue?

  • Did you check your existing listings to see for any restricted products policy violations which may have gone unnoticed?

3. Preventive steps:

  • Did you implement what all mentioned as corrective actions?

  • How will you make sure that any restricted products policy related issues will not happen in your account going forward?

  • How will you make sure the listings are abiding Amazon Listing / restricted products policy?

  • When you list any product to your Inventory, what all will you do to ensure it’s allowed to sell on amazon?

  • How will you make sure that the listings are 100% accurate to Amazon policies &how?

  • What are the changes you can bring in to control or to avoid similar violations going forward?

To better understand this policy we would recommend that you visit our help pages in Seller central and browse through the restricted product policy pages.

Please visit amazon’s restricted products policy here;

https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/G200164330

Please visit amazon’s categories and products requiring approval policy here;

https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/G200333160

Please visit amazon’s Category, product, and listing restrictions policy here;

https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/G200301050

You may also refer to Seller University on seller central for getting additional information by watching the videos given there. So, we request you to prepare more specific Plan of action instead of giving generic reply and please resubmit the plan and the concerned team will get back to you.

Let us know on this topic if you have any further concerns.

Regards;
Raya

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user profile
Seller_smABMiyNCUJYY

Hi @Raya_Amazon

Thanks for your reply, yes I know it was a bit vague, I have clearly under estimated the situation.

So here is my plan of action so far which I haven’t sent yet, but am hoping it is sufficient enough. I will go through it a few times and tidy it up more and make it sound more professional. After spending a few hours on it, it takes till the next day to have a fresh look on anything I might have missed and to make any improvements. Thanks for taking the time to read

Dear Amazon Seller Performance Team,

I appreciate you giving me a second chance to appeal my seller account suspension for listing products that are classified as restricted on Amazon.nl Marketplace

All listings that violated this policy have since been deleted.

Root Cause of the issue

  • Listing ASIN B0849YHCQH ‘Big Cat Spots and Stripes Spray Hand Sanitiser HAND13’ and 10 other additional products which were listed from my account.
  • Failure to read the Amazon Restricted guidelines prior to listing these products on Amazon.nl and failure to acknowledge laws and regulations regarding the sale of biocide products and appropriate label requirements. The items I listed were chemical based and were not authorised for the EU Requirements of the Biocidal Products Regulation (EU) No 528/2012 (“BPR”)
  • Failure to take action on the 1st notification on 6th April 2021 with regards to listing restricted products and not closing these listings correctly.
  • I take full responsibility for these issues and failure to understand Amazons policies and local laws & regulations, I completely understand the importance of this violation of the restricted policy, below is my plan of action detailing how I will prevent this from happening again.

The proactive steps I have taken to fix the issue

  • I have deleted this ASIN and all other products that violated this policy have also been deleted.
  • I have taken the time and proceeded with a further detailed check across all remaining inventory items and to ensure they are not violating any policies.
  • I have re-read all of Amazons policies and guidelines regarding the selling of prohibited items and also have gone through all of the “Category, Product and Content Restrictions” part as well as the “Product safety and compliance” section where I read through all of the relevant topics which covers all of my products, including the Biocidal Products.
  • As well as going through Amazon guidelines, I have educated myself through all the applicable laws in the EU and my obligations as an International Seller. I have also read numerous articles including this one https://echa.europa.eu/regulations/biocidal-products-regulation/understanding-bpr which has further educated me on the requirements and importance of how aware I should be when listing products on Amazon.
  • I will regularly keep myself updated with Amazons policies and guidelines monitoring any changes so I can proactively remove products if they become incompliant and to also keep myself updated with local laws and regulations.
  • Daily email checks and actively checking my Amazon Seller Central NL account for any compliance issues, acting immediately and addressing any concerns.
  • Ensuring any products that I intend to list for sale are thoroughly checked.
  • To prevent further products being listed on Amazon.nl I have educated myself further in the build international listing tool and any products that are incompliant, so this will not be listed. Having this functionality will allow me greater control over the products I intend to list.

I believe that my plan of action written above will prevent this issue from ever happening again. I look forward to having my selling privileges reinstated and continue selling on Amazon.nl.

Kind Regards

My Name etc

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