Amazon denies rumor: The news that 50,000 accounts were blocked is false!

Recently, Amazon's large-scale "account blocking wave" has caused widespread heated discussion. Amazon officials have also made the latest response to this matter. The editor has extracted the following key points from Amazon's official response:

The news that about 50,000 accounts were banned was false;

The claim that the ban only targets Chinese sellers is untrue;

The banned sellers not only manipulated reviews, but also engaged in more serious violations ...

Amazon's official latest positive response to the "account blocking wave" has made the account blocking issue, which had cooled down, become the focus of heated discussion again. Some netizens believe that Amazon's statement that it is "not targeting Chinese sellers" means that it is "targeting Chinese sellers", while others believe that if you want to block an account, then block it. Why do you confiscate other people's goods and money? At the same time, some netizens believe that Amazon's blocking is good, and domestic platforms should learn from it... There are many different opinions. The general public should first taste the official words and then express your opinions!

Amazon shuts down about 600 Chinese brands and 3,000 accounts

Since April this year , a large number of Chinese cross-border e-commerce sellers have encountered problems such as account closure, product removal, and fund freezing on the Amazon platform.

Amazon's account blocking action has made sellers panic. Sellers who have faked orders before are afraid that their accounts will be blocked one day. Previously, there have been reports that Amazon has blocked about 50,000 accounts in total , and there are also claims that the sellers whose accounts have been blocked have lost all their payments. However, yesterday, Amazon officially responded to various sellers' speculations.

In an interview, Amazon's global vice president Dai Xuefei said that in the past five months, Amazon has suspended the sales rights of about 600 Chinese brands, and about 3,000 accounts involving these brands have been closed.

It is understood that these brands have repeatedly violated regulations on the Amazon platform, and it is unlikely that the relevant accounts will be restored in the future. Amazon Global Vice President Dai Xuefei said: "When a seller's account is deactivated, Amazon will tell the seller the specific reason and provide them with a process for appeal, but the chances of the 600 brands' appeal being successful this time are not great. "

In addition, she also said that in addition to repeatedly abusing comments, the 600 Chinese brands that were blocked also had other violations, such as falsifying identities, bribery (cooperating with some gray industry parties), and selling illegal products.

Regarding the claim that the account blocking was only aimed at Chinese sellers, Dai Xufei said that the account blocking incident was not targeted at China, and merchants from other countries were also involved . In addition, the account blocking incident did not affect the overall business growth of Chinese sellers on the Amazon platform.

According to foreign media reports, Amazon also confirmed to The Verge that these 600 brands were banned for intentional, repeated and serious violations of Amazon's policies, especially the policy on abusing reviews.

Foreign media also reported that some Chinese sellers who were banned have changed their brands and continue to sell on Amazon, while foreign netizens said: "The constantly changing names make any sustained and serious lawsuits against them difficult. Amazon needs to know what products are actually sold in its stores and who sells them."

It is understandable that the account will be blocked if there are any violations, but one point that has been widely criticized by sellers this time is why the sellers’ payment is not returned after the account is blocked! “If the account is blocked, at least everyone should withdraw the money, otherwise it is too unreasonable.” said a seller.

Regarding the issue of frozen funds that sellers are concerned about, Amazon stated that, generally speaking, if the seller has not committed any other illegal or irregular behavior, the seller can apply to retrieve the frozen funds after 90 days.

Dai Xuefei, Amazon's global vice president, said: "The freezing period is 90 days. These frozen funds will be used to pay for some expenses, such as customer returns, refunds, compensation and other fees that sellers have not paid. After the freezing period, we will tell the seller to apply for the return of funds through normal procedures. If the seller does not involve other illegal or irregular behaviors, the funds can be retrieved as long as the identity verification is passed."

In addition, there is no inventory freeze period, and sellers can remove inventory products normally unless the seller sells illegal products.

Only 3,000 accounts were shut down? Seller: I don’t believe it

After Amazon officially responded to the account blocking incident, not only people in the circle but also many people outside the circle were talking about it. The editor summarized the views of netizens and found that many people support Amazon's account blocking and cleansing actions, but many people also expressed that some of the data in Amazon's response were "a bit unbelievable."

First of all, regarding Amazon’s official response that only 3,000 accounts were blocked , many sellers have this attitude:

Only 3,000 accounts were blocked ? I don’t believe you!

One seller said that the accounts of big sellers alone were more than 3,000. The 50,000 accounts mentioned earlier might be a bit too many, but this wave of blocking is definitely more than 3,000. Although there are many speculations about the number of accounts Amazon has blocked, the targets are indeed sellers who have violated regulations. Many conscientious white hat sellers also agree with Amazon's blocking behavior:

Those sellers who fake orders and use black technology should be banned!

Amazon bans accounts to maintain business rules and market regulations.

Many sellers increase their sales by taking " shortcuts" instead of thinking about how to serve consumers well . They are really black sheep .

Regarding the issue of fake orders, the news of the fake review database leak reported by foreign media some time ago caused a sensation. At that time, foreign media said that a total of more than 13 million communication messages between suppliers and customers were leaked, and this information was all related to fake reviews. The server of this leaked database is in China, and in these leaked information, the data of people who faked reviews and Amazon sellers can be found. At that time, foreign media said that 75,000 Amazon accounts may be affected.

Since the database was leaked, Amazon has begun to suspend sellers' accounts one after another. Of course, it is not known whether Amazon found the data in this database and extended it to the sellers.

Although Amazon has always banned fake orders and reviews and regularly takes action against such violations, the scale of its recent crackdown appears to be unprecedented.

An Amazon spokesperson said: “Customers rely on the accuracy and authenticity of product reviews to make informed purchasing decisions, and we have clear policies for both reviewers and selling partners prohibiting abuse of our community features . We suspend, ban, and take legal action against those who violate these policies, no matter where they are located. ”

He also said Amazon " will continue to improve abuse detection and take enforcement action against bad actors, including those who intentionally violate our policies multiple and repeated times and abuse reviews ."

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