A large number of Amazon sellers were caught by malicious infringement complaints using independent sites!

On the Amazon platform, malicious competition among sellers has repeatedly surfaced!

Recently, Seller A stated that the link that brought in thousands of orders per month was taken down due to complaints from peers, but the whole thing seemed absurd and outrageous.

According to Seller A, her peers copied her products to their own website, but then sued Seller A for infringing their products. The funny thing is that the peers actually succeeded in their complaints, which led to Seller A's products being directly removed from the Amazon platform...

Although seller A is now actively appealing to Amazon, it is not yet clear whether the appeal will be successful. If the appeal fails, the several thousand stocks in the Amazon FBA warehouse will become hot potatoes. Even if the appeal is successful, it is not known how long it will take, and the economic losses caused by the removal of the link during the appeal period will be even more difficult to offset!

It's a loss on both sides.

As soon as the product ranked high, it was targeted by competitors

Seller A stated in detail that this product link was recently launched and its ranking is stable at around 60th place. It can basically place 50-60 orders every day, which means it can place at least 1,500 orders per month .

Unfortunately, the product ranking had just risen for a short time when it was spoofed by competitors.

“After my competitor copied my product, he turned around and sued me for infringement. This is the first time I have encountered such a nonsensical situation.” Seller A was stunned after seeing the "fatal email" sent by Amazon early in the morning.

The content of the email shows that the text on the relevant product details page of Seller A is suspected of infringing the copyright of the "rights owner". If Seller A believes that Amazon's removal of the product is wrong, he can raise an objection. If he believes that the "rights owner" is incorrect in sending an infringement notification, he can also contact the "rights owner" and ask him to submit a request to withdraw this infringement notification.

After the incident, Seller A started to make preparations for both scenarios. On the one hand, he actively complained to Amazon, but the progress was very slow. After a day or two, Amazon had not responded.

At the same time, Seller A also tried to contact the complainant through the "rights owner" email address provided by Amazon, but unfortunately the message fell on deaf ears and the other party did not respond.

" The link is no longer for sale. Not only have we lost our daily sales, but there are still thousands of units of inventory piled up in Amazon warehouses. " Seller A's biggest worry now is that the link appeal will not be returned, and the listing he has carefully nurtured will be scrapped.

Using independent websites to maliciously complain about Amazon sellers’ listings has become a common phenomenon in the industry

Seller A's experience is not an isolated case.

The competition among Amazon sellers has already entered a white-hot stage. "Using independent websites to maliciously complain about peers' listings" has become one of the popular spoof methods in the past two years, which has caused a large number of Amazon sellers to suffer innocently!

B: After my product ranked first in its category and had thousands of orders a day, my competitor copied my listing verbatim and put it on his own website. He then used this as a basis to file a copyright infringement complaint, which was actually successful.

C: I was able to file a complaint and have the products removed by moving Amazon's pictures to an independent website . This actually happened to me , and the entrance to the complaint was closed . There was only DMCA !

D: My US site was repeatedly complained of copyright infringement by my competitors using independent sites, so Amazon directly removed my link ! We restored the link through other means, but we were complained about again in less than a day, and this happened over and over again .

E: I have been complained about again using an independent website. The previous time was for copyright infringement of images, all of which were original photos I took myself . This time I was complained about copyright infringement of texts. I would like some advice.

Judging from the feedback from many Amazon sellers, after a problem occurs, there are both successful and failed appeals.

In successful cases, some people submitted the appeal information themselves, while other sellers sought help from paid investment managers to help submit the appeal content and evidence , and the link was restored in about a week .

For other sellers, the appeal process was extremely long, and some even failed. In desperation, they had to “swallow all the bitterness” and “reluctantly” admit to Amazon that they were wrong, which brought the whole matter to a temporary end.

Of course, there are still many sellers who refuse to give in to the pranksters and refuse to admit that the content involved in the complaint is infringing. Therefore, they submit a written counter-notification ( DMCA ) to Amazon 's Copyright Agency Department . According to the DMCA counter-notification process , sellers need to prepare the following materials :

1. Identify the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or disabled ;

2. A statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief that the material in the complaint was misidentified or removed ;

3. Your name, address and telephone number;

4. A statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the judicial district in which your address is located and to receive legal process from the person who filed the above complaint (if you are outside the United States, you must state that you consent to the jurisdiction of any United States Federal District Court designated by us.)

5. Your handwritten signature or electronic signature.

In simple terms, sellers need to list the time when their products were put on the shelves and the time when the complaining party's products were put on the shelves on the independent website, and provide trademark certificates, purchase contracts, purchase VAT invoices, real photos of products with UPC, etc. According to feedback from informed sellers, the response to DMCA is generally very slow , and it takes about 20 days, which requires sellers to have enough patience to wait.

Similar incidents occur frequently, which has also increased the awareness of many Amazon sellers to reduce risks by "establishing an independent website with a trademark name as the domain name" .

Thoughts on using independent sites to maliciously complain about peers

Such ridiculous things as "using independent websites to maliciously complain about peer listings" can actually happen on a large scale. Many sellers believe that the platform must bear certain responsibilities.

" When encountering infringement, Amazon will avoid its own risks and instead transfer the risks to the sellers . Sellers can only submit materials according to Amazon's complaint requirements, and sometimes the submission may not be approved, " said a seller. Amazon 's thinking is wrong . The person making the complaint should provide sufficient evidence to prove that their rights have been infringed by others, rather than allowing malicious complainants to succeed by making random complaints. Instead, conscientious sellers are wrongly accused and have to spend a lot of time proving "I really did not infringe."

It is indeed questionable that Amazon simply removes sellers' products without first conducting an investigation . The person who made the malicious complaint is even more wrong. " People are evil. On a platform like Amazon, you never know how dirty some people's hearts are. " It is understood that some sellers use Shopify to build their websites , and then collect and list their competitors' Amazon links, and then go to Amazon to complain, which has been tried and tested and has always worked.

Some sellers have set up a special "malicious complaint department". When a new seller enters a certain category, they will make malicious complaints, using all possible means, from copywriting to sensitive words.

Where there are interests, there are disputes. The incidents of pranking peers will not stop. It is certain that malicious complainants will fall sooner or later, but Amazon sellers cannot sit idly by. If they cannot avoid being pranked, they can only enhance their ability to resist risks and pranks and strive to minimize losses.

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