Hello,
My seller account was recently (about a month ago) suspended for IP Infringement. These were mostly TWS wireless EarPods sold by Chinese sellers and the ASIN's are now gone as well as the sellers. I only sold some when I first opened my account and hadn't sold or had any in my inventory for months. I have appealed and submitted a POA 12 times now via the "submit additional information" section for your appeal in seller central. Yes, 12 times, not to mention sending emails to
notice-dispute@amazon.com,
seller-performance@amazon.com,
jeff@amazon.com and others. The reply I have received every single time is the same (pasted below) and In have provided invoices for the items and then all of the sudden the 3rd of 4th reply from Amazon had 7 different ASIN#'s than the original suspension notice. The products are all apparently from a company named Luster Leaf but none of the ASIN's were on Amazon. I have submitted this appeal/POA, but have no invoices since I don't know what products they are or how to find out. I can tell you I have never sold any Luster Leaf products. Below is the reply from Amazon, and below that my latest reply, any suggestions (I know it's lengthy so any advice/help is greatly appreciated)
Email from Amazon after appeal/POA -
"Hello,
Thank you for your message. We cannot accept your appeal because it does not address the report we received from the rights owner. Please provide the following information so we can process your appeal:
-- 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 issues.
-- Greater detail on the steps you have taken to prevent infringement going forward.
-- Greater detail on why you believe an error has occurred.
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.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:
Complaint ID:
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-funds@amazon.com.
You can view your account performance 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/amaz...er/id794141485
-- Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.amazon.sellermobile.android&hl..."
My Appeal/POA -
"Dear Amazon,
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to appeal against our account suspension. Please find below our appeal and plan of action.
Description of the issues that caused the suspension:
Our account has been suspended due to issues related to intellectual property infringement. We understand that Amazon prohibits the listing of products that violate intellectual ownership of a trademark owner.
The complaints are in relation to:
Complaint ID:
We failed to ensure that we were selling items which we had permission to sell on the website which is unacceptable. This has happened because one of our employees has listed products by mistake. He was a new employee and he was not properly trained about registered brands. This was completely our mistake and we can assure Amazon we will not be making this mistake again in future. It was due to our lack of due diligence that we did not realize we were violating policies and we sincerely apologize for our mistakes that we have made on the selling platform.
We have decided to remove all the above listings from our inventory permanently and we will not be relisting these items in the future to prevent any further issues. We have contacted the rights owners to advise the products have been removed immediately from our account and to apologize and ask for the complaint to be retracted, however we have not yet had a response.
We have learned many lessons from our account suspension and we would like to emphasise that we understand Amazon's policies regarding intellectual property. We have checked our entire inventory and we can confirm we have removed any listings which violate policies. We fully understand that if we supply goods on Amazon, we are responsible for ensuring that our listings comply with all applicable laws and Amazon’s policies. We will refer to the following web page prior to listing products
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/...rnal/201361070
We have implemented steps (as outlined below) to resolve the issues and prevent similar complaints of this nature.
The steps we have taken to ensure that we no longer infringe in the future:
We have rechecked all of our inventory to ensure that we have the right to sell all of the items, this will prevent any future complaints of violation of intellectual property.
It is absolutely imperative that all listings comply with Amazons policies so all of our staff will be required to read Amazons Policies and Agreements on a weekly basis to ensure everyone is fully up to date and comply fully when working on the Amazon market place.
All staff training will be updated every 3 months to ensure we do not make any mistakes, and make sure we do not get any intellectual property problems.
We have trained our staff on intellectual property by asking them to all complete the following course online
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/blogs/iptutor/ this will give them an understanding on IP law and is a CSD validated course .
Any listing we create will be thoroughly checked on the following website to ensure they do not infringe on other people’s intellectual property or trademark
https://www.tmdn.org/tmview/welcome
Before we purchase anything, the product is now researched to make sure that we are not infringing any intellectual property rights, and that the products are authentic. We will not purchase the item until we can guarantee it is authentic.
We will ensure we monitor our health account dashboard on a daily basis.
We constantly research any recent policies of products we are selling as well as the industry, including laws applicable to those products.
We will only sell products that we are authorized to sell and with the permission from the rights owner.
We have cross referenced my listings against Amazons guidelines and listing policies to ensure that my items are 100% compliant.
We have removed any products which violate intellectual property rights permanently from our account.
We understand we are responsible for ensuring that the products we offer for sale are legal and authorized for sale.
Additional Information:
To summarize, we have made improvements to how we operate our business and we have done a thorough review of our inventory, amended or deleted any incorrectly listed products and rolled out detailed training on Amazon's listing polices.
We have implemented appropriately the steps described above to resolve all the issues and to prevent similar complaints that we have allegedly infringed trademark. We fully appreciate Amazon’s policies and from now on, our listings will be in full compliance.
We take full responsibility for our account suspension and would be grateful if you could please reinstate our account as soon as possible.
All staff are now fully trained and compliant with Amazons policies which must be strictly adhered to within our company in future.
We can assure Amazon that we have taken note of, and we will make sure we work to the following policies and guidelines:
Prohibited Seller Activities and Actions
Product Detail Page Rules
Condition Guidelines
Amazon Anti-Counterfeiting Policy
Intellectual Property Policy
In addition to the above, and to avoid generic customer complaints, we will ensure any queries are dealt with efficiently and all messages are responded to within 12 hours during working hours. We will also carry out daily performance audits to monitor and review our performance metrics to ensure we are performing to and maintaining Amazon’s targets.
We assure you that we have resolved all the issues that caused our account suspension and that we are committed to providing customers with a positive buying journey. We have had lots of positive feedback from customers and would like to continue this success on Amazon. We trust you will be able to see all the measures taken throughout our business as well as our 0% ODR/metric rate, 0% late shipment rate, 0% chargeback rate, 0% pre-order cancellation rate, 97.7% valid tracking rate and 100% positive seller feedback over the last 90 days and 95% with 102 ratings over the last year of selling on Amazon will help you to see we have nothing but the best intentions when selling on Amazon.
If you have any queries or need any further information please do not hesitate to contact us.
Best regards,
