Urgent Help Needed: Account Deactivated because of Inauthentic Claim
Hey fellow Amazon FBA sellers,
I'm facing a serious issue with Amazon regarding an inauthentic claim on one of my products, and I could really use your expertise and advice on how to proceed.
Here's the situation: I primarily engage in online arbitrage, sourcing discounted items from retailers, which are then sent to my 3PL for prep before being shipped to Amazon warehouses. Recently, Amazon flagged one of my products as potentially inauthentic and requested proof of purchase to verify their authenticity. I promptly provided purchase receipts, but Amazon responded that they couldn't verify my supplier, Miniature Market, and requested further documentation
- Transaction records between my supplier and theirs,
- Authorization from the brand owner to me.
Unfortunately, I'm unable to provide these documents. However, I did submit indirect evidence such as news articles announcing Miniature Market's acquisition by Asmodee, a company with official partnerships with the brand owner. Additionally, while I don't have explicit authorization from the brand owners, I referenced the First Sale Doctrine in Copyright Law to highlight my legal right to resell products I've legitimately purchased.
Despite my efforts, my appeal was rejected again, and Amazon is insisting on documents I simply can't obtain. At this point, I'm reaching out to the seller community for any insights or suggestions on how to navigate this situation. Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide!
Urgent Help Needed: Account Deactivated because of Inauthentic Claim
Hey fellow Amazon FBA sellers,
I'm facing a serious issue with Amazon regarding an inauthentic claim on one of my products, and I could really use your expertise and advice on how to proceed.
Here's the situation: I primarily engage in online arbitrage, sourcing discounted items from retailers, which are then sent to my 3PL for prep before being shipped to Amazon warehouses. Recently, Amazon flagged one of my products as potentially inauthentic and requested proof of purchase to verify their authenticity. I promptly provided purchase receipts, but Amazon responded that they couldn't verify my supplier, Miniature Market, and requested further documentation
- Transaction records between my supplier and theirs,
- Authorization from the brand owner to me.
Unfortunately, I'm unable to provide these documents. However, I did submit indirect evidence such as news articles announcing Miniature Market's acquisition by Asmodee, a company with official partnerships with the brand owner. Additionally, while I don't have explicit authorization from the brand owners, I referenced the First Sale Doctrine in Copyright Law to highlight my legal right to resell products I've legitimately purchased.
Despite my efforts, my appeal was rejected again, and Amazon is insisting on documents I simply can't obtain. At this point, I'm reaching out to the seller community for any insights or suggestions on how to navigate this situation. Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide!
7 replies
Seller_Qbd0RsfZFEZBY
Deactivations for section 3 due to an inauthentic (counterfeit) claim are not reviewed for reactivation.
Seller_Qbd0RsfZFEZBY
You answered your own question. The first sale docterine pertains to copywritten work like art,music, or literature.
Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrw
Gee, you would think that one of the OA/RA cheerleaders who so actively encourage people to go that route would chime in here to help.
But don't hold your breath.
You played with fire; you got burnt. You're done.
As for First Sale Doctrine, that first of all applies to Copyrighted items, but also only protects your legal right to sell it; doesn't mean that Amazon has to allow it. It also applies only to items obtained legally; you have no way of proving that.
Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrw
The key word there is "retailer".
Inventory should be purchased from a WHOLESALE distributor. That's the way regular businesses operate; they don't walk into the store down the street, mark it up, and then put it on their own shelves.
Cade_Amazon
Hello @Seller_9j2GgYLLbF4Ba,
Thank you for reaching out. I hope all is well. I see you have already received guidance from the community, but I wanted to reach out as well.
As you have mentioned in the title, I understand that your account is deactivated due to inauthentic claims. By selling inauthentic products, the trust between buyers, Amazon, and your business is called into question.
Per our Amazon Anti-Counterfeiting Policy, selling counterfeit items, items that are not legal to sell on amazon is prohibited, and must provide records of authenticity of the product.
Per our best practices in product authenticity and quality policy, all sellers must source the products from a reliable source, be confident in the authenticity and quality of the products, and have proper documents such as invoices.
How do you vet your supplier? How do you know that your supplier is selling authentic products?
Does the document you submit meet the invoice requirements?
- Must be issued in the last 365 days
- Must match the sales volume in the last 365 days
- Must have your supplier’s information such as their name, address, phone number and email address
- Must have the seller’s information that matches the information in seller central when you registered to sell
- Upload the documents in pdf, png, gif, or jpg
- Your documents should be able to trace your products to the original manufacturer even if you did not purchase them directly from the original manufacturer. This may require requesting additional invoices or supply chain documentation from your supplier if you are not sourcing directly from the manufacturer.
- You may remove pricing information, but the rest of the document must be visible to enable adequate review of the documents you provide. For ease of our review, you may highlight or circle the ASIN(s) under review.
Invoices are going to demonstrate where your products are produced or manufactured. What steps have you taken to verify your submission to our criteria?
Why are you not able to provide the documents?
Thank you @Seller_Qbd0RsfZFEZBY and @Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrw for your input.
I see that you may have additional questions. For this reason, I am forwarding your information to the Account Health Support team for further investigation into this matter. Please ensure that your contact information is up to date so they may reach out to you.
If you have any questions or concerns, please continue to reply in this post.
Best,
Cade
