They infringe their own rights! Top 100 sellers on Amazon.com were attacked

As sellers prepare for the peak season, they seem to be in a tense state every day, without a single peaceful day. Previously, the store was blocked due to account association, and now Amazon US Best Sellers have been "attacked" by unknown organizations, and product links have been removed from Amazon one after another for infringement...

Amazon US top 100 sellers suffered "attack"

Recently, a seller revealed that the top 100 sellers on Amazon’s US site were “attacked”.

"This attack is aimed at Amazon 's Best Sellers in the US. The other party's purpose is not extortion, but to gain sales positions in the top 100 lists of each category and brand control over the US Best Sellers. Or maybe he is doing a bigger test to pave the way for bigger things later, " said the seller.

According to the seller, the organization manipulating this incident is an individual of non-Chinese nationality. Currently, more than 40 brands have been registered in the UK , 28 of which are exactly the same as Amazon's Best Sellers, covering a wide range of categories, including toys, home furnishings, pets, essential oils, fire extinguishers and many other categories.

The seller said that up to now, several sellers have had the same experience as him, and the other party’s tactics are exactly the same, that is, they register the British trademark and then complain about sellers who already own the US trademark.

First, this agency will register a trademark with the same name as the U.S. seller in the UK, and then file it with Amazon. While owning the brand, it can also unbind other sites. Then, it will use the trademark to build an independent site, and name the domain name after its own trademark. After that, it will test buy the U.S. seller’s products, and use the brand’s registered domain name email to complain that the U.S. trademark belongs to it, and report the seller for trademark infringement. Finally, when Amazon receives the complaint, it will stop the U.S. seller’s sales rights. After the seller’s link is removed and it loses control of its own brand, the Amazon brand management system will transfer the seller’s trademark management rights to the other party.

The seller said that this "attack" may be organized and premeditated because they have registered a large number of trademarks in the UK that are identical to those of sellers on the US site, and have also built independent sites with the same trademarks. Their purpose is obvious.

"It is very likely that there is a huge bug in Amazon that allowed this organization to take advantage of it," one seller speculated. In fact, this is not an isolated case. As early as early October, a seller exposed a similar case in which his trademark was preemptively registered and the brand control was forced to "hand over to others."

After encountering such incidents, many sellers choose to provide the Trademark Office with the time of use of their trademarks and related information. However, for many sellers, this process is not only lengthy, but the losses caused are also inestimable.

Such incidents have also sounded a wake-up call for sellers. In particular, sellers selling the TOP 100 products in the above categories can first go to the UK Trademark Office to check whether their US trademarks have been registered . If not, they should register as soon as possible. If so, record the UK trademark number and go to the brand registration of Amazon US to enter the UK registration number you found to check whether the registration number has been filed. If it has been filed, it may become the next target of "attack".

The seller also said that despite providing real and accurate evidence and information, they were still judged not to be the trademark holder. Currently, the sellers who have been hacked cannot appeal back to the link and brand, and may even face the risk of having their stores closed. Amazon also asked us to ask for a letter of authorization from the people who attacked us. I hope Amazon will fix the loophole as soon as possible to prevent more sellers from being attacked.

Surprise! A large number of sellers’ accounts have been unblocked

In the eyes of sellers, Amazon has more than one "loophole". A group of accounts that were blocked some time ago have recently resumed normal sales, and Amazon has also sent an "apology letter"...

A few days ago, many sellers reported that they encountered account association problems and found that their accounts were blocked. During the peak season, account blocking is undoubtedly a huge blow to sellers. However, more and more sellers have been hit. Some sellers speculated whether this is another wave of account blocking by Amazon, and whether this year's peak season will be completely ruined ...

However, to the surprise of many sellers, just a few days later, the previously blocked accounts returned to normal.

In recent days, according to feedback from many sellers, the European site accounts that were blocked a few days ago have now been restored to sales status. At the same time as a large number of seller accounts were unblocked, they also received "apology emails" from Amazon.

The content of the email shows, " We reviewed your instructions and reactivated your account. In order to maintain community order, we will act with caution, but misjudgments may occasionally occur. " In other words, Amazon's explanation for the closure of a large number of sellers' accounts this time was "misjudgment."

Seller A: There must be something fishy going on. I hope there won’t be any more trouble next time…

Seller B: Just a letter of apology and that's it? Who will help us bear the losses?

Seller C: No matter what, everyone will be happy if the ban is lifted, otherwise the peak season will be really over.

Seller D: I hope this kind of bug won’t happen again. It’s so heartbreaking!

Another seller said: "The account was unblocked before I had time to appeal. Is it possible that Amazon discovered the error on its platform and corrected it? And the accounts that were unblocked this time are basically divided into two types, one is misjudged, and the other is the associated account KYC review failed. In other words, as long as it is not blocked due to double-checking, there should be a high chance that it can be unblocked after being misjudged. "

Although the sudden unblocking made a large number of affected sellers ecstatic, there are still many sellers who said that they were "very sad" about the losses caused during the appeal period and could only bear it all silently.

In addition, there are a group of sellers who were not lucky enough to have their accounts unblocked and boldly speculated that the blocking this time was probably Amazon’s “retaliatory measure.” In fact, they were “asking for trouble.” If their accounts were blocked due to fake orders on other sites before, then they were most likely the culprit for the blocking this time.

In general, this wave of related account suspensions was a fatal blow to those sellers who failed to recover. Amazon's repeated "fancy attacks" made a number of sellers realize that the previous operating model was no longer feasible.

Some industry insiders believe that, judging from the current situation, whether it is small and medium-sized sellers or large enterprises, they must focus their development on products in the future. The industry will pay more and more attention to dataization and refinement, and put more effort into product quality, packaging and design. At the same time, they should not rely too much on a certain platform, but try multi-channel operations. Even if a platform account is blocked, they will not end up losing everything.

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