Selective distribution rights Complaint I account suspension
Hello Everyone
I really hope someone can help.
I am struggling with account suspension related to selective distribution rights Complaint.
WE have purchased product of certain brand from the authorised distributor, distributor failed to inform us on restrictions on re-selling this brand. We have listed our offers against existing Amazon ASINs and not long since we have done it we have recieved policy violation and stright away account suspension.
I understand we have failed to verify this and we are doing our best to nbclock this account.
Maybe some advise from other sellers who has had similar issue in the past?
We have already provided invoices from these authorised distributors, provided their details and website where it states that they are authorised distributors
Our action plan explained what has happened and why:
We verified that our suppliers were authorised distributors
Amazon allowed additing offer to the existing ASINs without any verification/ or approval requirement.
Our fault is that we have not contacted brand itself to check if we can sell their products on Amazon
We have now removed all offers of this brand.
We have emailed brand owner 3 times already with apologies, statement confirming we will no longer distribute their brand, asking to retract complaint
We have checked all other brands we have had listed if they are ok to be sold
We have analyzed all Amazon policies in regards to this violation.
Unfortunately we constantly get response: the same automated that Amazon does not have enough information:
- More details on the root cause (s) of the violation.
- More details on the actions you have taken to resolve the
complaints related to the violation. - More details on the steps you have taken to prevent future violations.
This is over and over again, like nobody was even reading our POA.
Can any more experienced seller give us some advise?
many thanks
Maggie
7 replies
Seller_NoMNQDGnEW5Bx
Post your actual POA on here and I’m sure people will give you some pointers
Seller_ykxbr7GWcj2If
Here is our most recent appeal
- Proof of the authenticity of the product (invoice, order number or letter authorization, for example). It must clearly prove that your products do not violate the intellectual property of the rights holder
Please check 2 invoices attached.
Supplier 1:
Invoice F/015931/21
I have also put here their full contact details
Referring to ASINs
xxxxxxx
All marked on invoice accordingly.
Supplier 2:
Invoice: Faktura 775/MAG/04/2021
and contact details
Referring to ASINs
xxxx
Greater detail on the root cause(s) of the infringement.
Infringement of the selective distribution rights
We have purchased xxx products from the authorised distributors in Poland (details provided above)
We had no information from them on any selective distribution rights
There was no approval needed on Amazon when adding an offer to the existing listing.
Listing details page was verified and all details were in line with product we have sourced.
– Greater detail on the actions you have taken to resolve the infringement issues.
We have closed all xxx offers in my our inventory.
We have double checked that our suppliers are authorised distributors- please check the attached screenshot of information on their website.
We have contacted our supplier to check against any selective distribution rights.
We have contacted brand owner in order to get approval for selling his brand however we had no response- copy of email attached
We have also contacted brand owner to ask for retraction and if he is not looking to give us permission we are committed to avoid re-selling his brand- copy of email attached
– Greater detail on the steps you have taken to prevent infringement going forward.
- Regarding xxx brand
We have removed our offers for xxx brand
We have removed xxx products from our product range
We have made a mistake by not having a relevant knowledge on infringement of the selective distribution rights- we have fixed it as follows:
What has been done:
- I have carefully reviewed my entire Amazon account and Inventory to make sure that all my listings are fully compliant with EU law and the Amazon policies and guidelines.
We have checked the following
Specifically:
Exclusive or Selective Distribution: Amazon respects a manufacturer’s right to enter into exclusive distribution agreements for its products. However, violations of such agreements do not constitute intellectual property rights infringement. As the enforcement of these agreements is a matter between the manufacturer and the retailers, it would not be appropriate for Amazon to assist in enforcement activities.
Also we have verified with EU law
Article 1, let. e) of Regulation (EU) No 330/2010 broadly defines it as a distribution system where the supplier undertakes to sell the contract goods or services, either directly or indirectly, only to distributors selected on the basis of specified criteria and where these distributors undertake not to sell such goods or services to unauthorised distributors within the territory reserved by the supplier to operate that system.
- New procedure- contacting brand owners in order to establish if restricted distribution rights are in place.
We understand that every time when our supplier fails to inform us on limited distribution of certain products we are responsible for contacting brand owner in order to verify our rights to re-sell certain brand, this was already implemented as our sourcing process.
We have removed our offers and we are contacting each distributor to establish rights for further distribution of certains brands- please check emails attached
- New procedure- prior implementing new product or attaching offer on Amazon we will be contacting Amazon in order to establish if specific brand has restricted distribution rights in place- Once our account will be activated all ASINs will be re-checked ( at the moment due to account suspension this is impossible)
What I found difficult is to proove what has been implemented to avoid it in the future as it really referrs to our next actions once we have our account activated
All feedback is very much appreciated.
thanks
Maggie
Seller_KKcTTZzy6Jd6Q
So basically Amazon policy says that you won’t receive an infringement for this and they won’t remove listings or suspend your account/etc.
When you get issues where Amazon have broken their own policies it’s extremely hard to get them to listen to anything you say…
The_Little_Shop’s suggestion of contacting your suppler is going to be the easiest and most likely way to get this resolved.
With regards to your PoA, the root causes is a list of issues, it doesn’t really explain what actions you actually took that caused the problem.
Some of the section section could do with a little re-wording;
Change this to “we have immediately stopped selling xxx on Amazon.”
It would be best if you have also deleted them from your inventory (and say that you have.)
Merge those two into one, “I have contacted the brand owner with regards to getting approval to resell their products directly from themselves rather than through an authorised supplier, I have also requested clarity on their selective distribution rights, so far I have not had a response but I will add any relevant documents here when available.”
In the final section:
These are steps taken to resolve the issue, not prevent it happening again.
You don’t generally need to “prove” that you’ve implemented the changes, just say what you have changed and the “proof” is whether or not it happens again…
Seller_ykxbr7GWcj2If
Thank you so much for your comments and advise
Regarding contacting brand owner we have already sent 3 emails
Authorised distributors who we have purchased from pretend they do not know anything on restrictions.
This is a brand owner in U who has complaint but there is no responses from their end.
I will re-wrote the appeal and will see what happens
many thanks again
