Exclusive Relationships (the business kind...)
I am a new seller so many thanks in advance for engaging in this post
I have been in contact with lots of distributors and wholesalers and brands. I have had more than one say to me that they do not want me to sell their products on amazon. They say that they are in an exclusive agreement with certain amazon reps/sellers. One individual (DISTRIBUTOR) made a sweeping statement “sellers must have a brand owner’s permission before selling on amazon…otherwise it could be in violation of amazon’s IP policy and they would be liable to reporting me”
Additional info: the brand listings in question have been added to my catalogue with zero problem, the brand listing is NOT brand registered to a 3rd party.
TLDR- So here are my questions:
(1) a. Is a BRAND allowed to do only supply to some Amazon sellers and not others
b. Is a DISTRIBUTOR allowed to do this (especially if said distributor is a competitor on this product found selling via FBM)
(2) Does amazon uphold these exclusive agreements, can I get kicked off a listing by amazon if I were to proceed and just buy these products elsewhere e.g. avoid this distributor and find a wholesaler.
(3) What on earth has this got to do with IP when it’s not even brand registered
Thanks!
0 replies
Seller_7VbclcPFFRTnc
Yes, yes and yes
If the brand does not allow amazon sales, or only allows a specific seller to sell their goods on amazon, they can report to amazon through their brand registry
Where have you checked this ?
Does the asin have a brand name on it, or just ‘generic’ ?
Seller_esvgLzKXw2YAl
Companies have done this kind of thing well before Amazon was around, so it’s not exactly new.
They have an agreement in place with perhaps Tesco, for exclusive sales of a specific line etc.
But if Tescos then decide to sell them to Morrisons, for them to sell in their store, they tell them to stop and if they don’t, they simply stop supplying them.
Amazon has just added a further level of complexity to that process. Nothing more.
Seller_BS5lg2keRs2QO
I think the gating / ungating process likely confuses some sellers, but i’m not sure i have a real solution. If something isn’t gated, or you can ungate it without providing any documents, all that really means is Amazon aren’t going to ask for documents right now. But tomorrow they might. It isn’t tacit approval from Amazon at all really.
Seller_JHkouAeJou7vE
We’ve had countless letters, C&Ds over the years from brands that don’t want us to sell on Amazon. Occasionally they came through as IP violations.
The issue arises from the fact that brand sells to a distributor, who then indiscriminates sell inventory to anyone who will buy it. That includes Amazon & eBay sellers.
It is very difficult to check this if you’re dealing with lots of brands. We used to have 1000s of SKUs, and a good 100-150 brands at any one time.
All you really do is ask the distributor in writing if there are any restrictions on selling any of the brands on Amazon.
It won’t stop the brand opening violations etc or sending letters, but it can help you get them retracted when they come after you.
You preferably want a direct relationship with the brand, or at least their acknowledgement and support of your activities to make this sustainable.
I appreciate that isn’t practical in most cases, though - especially if the brands are owned by mult-national behemoths.
Seller_tRuvBEHDedp4q
Wasnt there a case quite a few years ago where Tesco managed to get hold of a famous brand of jeans direct from the factory and was going to sell them cheaper than they were currently sold in other high street stores?
The jean brand took them to court to stop Tescos selling them saying that they felt selling the brand in Tescos cheapened their image. Tesco lost the case and were unable to sell the jeans.
So selling on Amazon is similar - if the brand feel like selling via certain sellers or on certain marketplaces is not acceptable then they can stop the sales.
I dont buy from wholesalers anymore because of this reason. I only buy from OEM/Suppliers and then make sure I have permission to sell their products on the various marketplaces. Occasionally one will say I can sell on one marketplace but not another (mainly because they already selling themselves on that marketplace). Yes its a grey area - but at the end of the day the supplier can choose who they sell to, and there is nothing illegal about that.
Seller_rGtEcZnu0JTRD
Absolutely, we all know that Amazon is a race to the bottom, and it DOES de-value products which can affect the brand if it becomes known as a cheap product. We recently aquired a Designer Kids Company to add to our online offering and a Homewares company, with 90% of suppliers on both companies having blanket bans on all open marketplaces, the products price remains high for both the wholesalers, and the retailers which to be honest suits us down to the ground, as we can achieve margins 3 times higher than we can achieve on Amazon, yes our sales are only 1/3 of what we could do on Amazon, but the same overall profit is made with a lot less work (and hassle).
